


Into the Ring

by BiFrye (RafeAdler)



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boxing, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anal Sex, Explicit Sexual Content, Fight Club - Freeform, M/M, Oral Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-06-09 21:06:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 40,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6923386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RafeAdler/pseuds/BiFrye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on an AU art by spangles-my-stars on tumblr! I got permission to use this. Their art is here: http://spangles-my-stars.tumblr.com/post/137729258392/anybody-ask-for-a-rothfrye-modern-au-where-jacob</p><p>In a modern setting, Jacob Frye has begun to join the fighting rings of London, catching the interest of a particular recruiter, Maxwell Roth. Bringing him up in ranks, training, and a tool of revenge, things don't always go as planned, not necessarily as wanted. Two men trying to figure out what they want and what they're willing to do to get it.</p><p>Rating went from Mature to Explicit for dirties</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Match

**Author's Note:**

> My summaries are really bad but I hope that this will go well and I'm really happy I'm getting an opportunity to write it yay! Just please enjoy and lemme know what you think, also props to the artist they're very nice and cool and this is a cool idea!

It was just another day at the ring. Two men climbing in with the blaring of the music, the noises of people stomping and yelling. Beer cracked open, people drowning in it. The reek of sweat and blood and piss. Shit, too. The underground fighting rings weren’t as nice as the freshened, washed and cleaned up ones on television, ones that professionals fight. Real fighters. Or least ones who are meeting their real potential. Everything down here was a free-for-all, and to Maxwell Roth…

It was amazing.

He didn’t like those posh players up in the big leagues. They all sat around, talking big game, but in the ring bets were made, things were rehearsed, and the outcome was known months before the fight took place. He preferred the raw talent down here in the dirt. Seeing people beat the shit out of each other just to try to get some money, makes some laughs, and feel like the strongest person alive.

The two currently in the ring weren’t very interesting. Two slow brutes, both a little big for their breeches, and Roth shrugged them off. He ran a hand through his raven hair and continued to look around at the potentials. He was a recruiter, after all. Normally he would be more of a trainer for one of these lowlife fighters, if only they could pay more than the big man upstairs.

He looked at each fighter waiting for their turn and shook his head. Too slow. Too scrawny. Too brash. Not focused.

His eyes barely skimmed over the young man with thick brown locks, a grin on his face and a light in his eyes. The tattoo on his chest stood out, but not for long.

Too young. He’d break easily.

Roth took a seat in his usual place. He came around here often enough for people to know who he was and which seat was his. If someone didn’t know, they would find themselves leaving with all their limbs broken. And that was just how Roth liked it. He leaned back and glanced at the man sitting just beside him, his assistant and personal bookkeeper, since Roth was too lazy to do that work. “Lewis,” he said, “get me a drink, will you?” He didn’t have to watch and see if the man stood up to go get it. He knew that would happen. Nobody disobeyed his orders.

The fights went on for a while, and all of it seemed pretty boring to Roth. They get in the ring, one guy knocks another down, they get out. Guy gets his money, they leave. He would have gone to professional games if he wanted this kind of action - or lackthereof.

At the other end of the ring, the young man with thick brown hair climbed into the ring. He was pulling on hand wraps, grinning like a child as he stepped up. Compared to the man he was waiting in the ring for him, he was miniscule, and Roth knew where to bet his money instantly. He lolled his head back, sighing as he waited for the five seconds of violence to end with a bone crunch and a scream from the smaller one.

There was a bone crunch. Multiple. Roth’s ears pricked and he looked up. The little one had the big guy down on the ground, and he held the man’s arm up and kicked the elbow so it cracked. The scream was full of such pain, Roth raised his brows. That was impressive.

The boy stayed in the ring as his opponent was carried off. Roth sat up a bit, waiting for the boy to turn around and hop back out, ready to receive his small reward and leave.

But he stood fast, grinning and raised his arms. “Who’s next?” he shouted. The crowd cheered. Roth wanted to as well, but he kept his mouth shut. Two men decided to hop into the ring, shirts being torn off and preparing for a brawl.  _ There’s no way he’ll last _ , Roth thought. He had actually trained one of those boys some years ago. He was probably rusty now, but training from Maxwell Roth did anyone some good.

One of the men began to circle around the boy. The brown haired wonder didn’t seem at all bothered, standing there in a casual stance and hopping from one foot to the other. In fact, he looked energized, excited, and more than ready to leap and attack. Eventually, one of the men was ready to attack from behind, one from the front. Two against one, such strong, big beasts against that little bird…

But the little bird was quick.

He dashed forward, reaching and grabbing the man in front of him by the arm. He dragged the man forward, their bodies switching places with a strong force. The bigger man almost lost his balance, but managed to keep his feet under him. The little bird, however, let go of his arm, raised a leg, and kicked him right in the backside.

Both of his enemies collided and tripped up over each other. The little bird raised his arms and looked proud running over and dragging one up to his feet. The enemy still looked disoriented, but little bird didn’t seem to care. One, two, three hits in the arms, the face, the stomach. The stomach blow caused the man to reel over. Roth could see where the little bird was going next. He backed up and swung, his leg raising up and kicking the man in the side of the face. Foe number one was down and struggling to get up.

All the while, foe number two was getting back up on his feet and catching his breath. He ran at the little bird, fist raised. The little bird just laughed. He ducked under the bunch with ease, and two hits right in the man’s side caused him to back up and put on defense.

Roth leaned in his seat. How was the little bird going to figure this out?

Two hits to the arms, watching the bigger man get backed up, but not beat down. The little bird seemed to be playing. Pecking at the great big bear, biding his time, waiting for a chance to hit. The man threw a few punches before getting back into defense, but the little bird was too quick, backing up and avoiding each punch, though a few nearly grazed him. Roth’s heart was beating fast. “Come on, little bird…”

It all seemed to happen so quickly. From where he sat, Roth couldn’t spot a good opening for the little bird to take, but the fighter himself seemed to make one. He reached, hand finding a space between the two guarded arms. He grasped his foe by the face, dragging him through his barrier and breaking through the defense. All the while, he pulled his opponent’s face right into his fist. The man went down hard, collapsing on the ground. Blood spurted from his nose, and the little bird, for good measure, kicked his heel down on the man’s chest, knocking the wind out of him. He went to the other man, who was struggling up, and kicked him first in the stomach, then in the back, then brought his foot down on one arm.

Amazement was exploding in the audience, and everyone was cheering. The little bird stayed in the ring, taking on as many men as possible before going to sit down and take a break. By the end of it all, he had a black eye and blood from his lips, but he was grinning like he was the king of the world. Roth stood up, forgetting that Lewis was still not back with his drink (the lines and orders in these places took so long), and he wandered over to the betting tables. Leaning on it, he glanced over at the young fighter. The little bird. His prize.

“Who’s the lad there?”

“Hm… Oh, him? That’s a new guy. Jacob Frye. From Crawley, he’s the champion over there.”

Jacob Frye from Crawley.

The fights went on for a few more hours, Jacob no longer entering the ring. There were no more fighters quite like him, hardly anyone staying in the ring as long as he did. He was laid back and relaxing away from the ring, a young man helping him with some of his injuries and bruises. Roth couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed by that. He wanted to speak to this boy, preferably alone, but it began to look like that wasn’t really going to be an option unless he asked. Yet, as people began to leave, the lights being shut off, and everyone pouring out of the area - besides some trainers and fighters - Roth felt as though he had no chance but to get up and approach now.

He stood from his seat and went to Jacob, who didn’t seem to even notice him. The boy helping him certainly did. A young man with glasses, a nice little hat and a suspicious look in his eye took a moment to step in front of Jacob and give Roth a suspicious look. “Well, look who it is,” the boy’s voice was light and particularly American. Roth recognized the boy but no names or particular memories stood out to him. “Roth. What do you want here?”

Jacob pat the boy on the side, and the boy looked down at him with concern. Roth heard a soft, “It’s fine, Ned.” before the boy walked away, glancing back every now and again. Jacob looked up at Roth, and there was a joy, a childish and strong spirit in those dark eyes of that beautiful little bird.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Jacob stretched out a hand, and Roth shook it. The recruiter made sure not to seem overeager as he shook the young man’s hand, but he was. It was so few and far between to come across such talent in a dirty place like this, he was impressed someone of this potential was found here at all.

“The name’s Maxwell Roth,” he replied coolly, “I saw how your fighting went today, and I must say, I liked what I saw.”

He was surprised when Jacob looked a little flustered. Hadn’t the boy heard compliments before? He was a damned good brawler!

Jacob shifted in his seat and looked up at Roth, his brief moment of shock replaced with a cool expression. “Thank you,” he said. “Just a normal day I suppose.”

“I heard you were from Crawley. Got a little bored over there?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I want to come to the best fighting town in the country?”

Roth shook his head. There were a few other towns he could think of that were a little bit better than London, but he was certain a young lad from Crawley wouldn’t know that. “So, were you planning on trying to make it big here?” he asked. When Jacob shrugged, Roth knew he had a chance. Pulling a little card from his pocket, he put it in Jacob’s hand and grinned. “If you ever want a chance to make big ones, you call me first. Got it? I’d love to work with the toughest man I’ve ever seen in this fighting business.”

If Jacob Frye had low self esteem, Roth could see Jacob melt right there at those words, total astonishment and wonder on his face. They stood like that a moment, looking at each other, Jacob gripping Roth’s card and looking awed, Roth unable to stop himself from admiring the young man before him. Strong, well built, and beautiful. A perfect pet to train. A perfect little bird.


	2. A Week Before the Match

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place a week before the previous chapter. There will be a week and a day before chapter! Just so you know. This is kind of more of a "feel" chapter for Jacob and Evie in the modern setting, along with Ned, Topping and Henry!
> 
> Hope you like it!

The box pile was finally gone. For the full month it was stacked high, different items of clothes and decorations and belongings springing out like leaks within the cardboard or plastic containers. Over time, the little pile within the new apartment the Frye twins had acquired was dwindling.

And today was the day. Finally, after a month of unpacking (which, considering how they really didn’t have that much to begin with, it was kind of sad), Jacob Frye was beaming with pride when he threw that last little cardboard box away. Of course, he took a photo of himself with it and sent it to his sister Evie Frye before slam dunking it in the recycling bin.

The apartment was pretty small, but they didn’t need for much. Music was blasting from the radiot, Jacob humming along with it. He usually wasn’t one to clean, but when he actually decided to he worked hard. He made sure everything was how they wanted it - the bean bags and chairs arranged right in the living room, the little tv with gaming consoles and their games stacked up under it. The bathroom had everything arranged just how they wanted - Evie’s bathroom supplies in blue because she liked blue, and Jacob’s in green. Jacob took the right side of the sink, Evie took the left. That was how it always was. Singular, organized fashion - or Evie would kill him.

This was their first time having separate rooms. Jacob felt strange about it. Back in Crawley, growing up away from the big city and with a family friend, they had to share a cramped room their whole lives. It was strange to have his own space for the first time in his life.

Jacob’s room was already a mess, even though it all just finished getting unpacked. Unmade bed, the pillows scattered everywhere. He preferred to sleep in dog pile fashion anyway. The desk was cluttered with junk - mostly ads and letters and newspapers. His laptop was propped open, And on the wall near it was a collection of guns. Only handguns, simple ones. There was no ammo, they were locked. Jacob admired them quietly as he walked to grab his clothes from the floor to do laundry. Most of those old pistols were too old to work anymore, but Jacob just… liked them. They were beautiful, made with such care. He loved that.

As the young man gathered his clothes together in a bin, his phone buzzed. Evie had responded to his picture, and he was giddy. She usually never gave him the satisfaction.

_Good job, now clean your room you slob_

_Oh dear sis, wut do u think i was doin_

_Making out with your guns?_

_Ur real funny_

Jacob was about to put his phone away when a new number buzzed. It wasn’t a number he recognized, and he frowned. He didn’t really know many people in the city yet, acquaintances were still pretty hard to come by for Jacob. He wasn’t the star of the show like Evie had always been, running the Frye Defensive School. He wasn’t interested in using his talents that way. He wanted to make some money doing the dangerous, getting out there and using his strength.

The text was from Ned Wynert, a friend of Evie’s. He had been a sort of “pen pal” with her growing up, and was the one to get them good information on where they could find a place to live. He didn’t recall giving his number to the guy, though.

_Greetings, Frye_

Jacob rolled his eyes. The guy was cute but already like Evie - formal and proper, which Jacob sometimes found annoying. Stuck-up more like it.

_Greetings, Frye. I recall when your sister, you and I all met together that you mentioned being interested in fighting? I heard a lot about your fighting in Crawley - impressive! I happen to know a good place to do some fighting locally, if you’d like. Topping’s. I could be your “sponsor” type or whatnot. I’m interested in the fights enough, and confident in you that if you wanted a go at it… let’s! - Ned_

Jacob raised his brows, staring down at the message. He only remembered mentioning his fighting career in passing. The kid really retained that information? He shifted from one foot to another, arms crossing as he read the message through again. When his eyes hit Evie’s name he cringed. If Evie found out he was going to fighting again she would be furious with him. Her constant nagging at him was horrible enough. It was either help her in the Defense School or go get a real job that isn’t fighting. Father would have wanted you to help me, father would have wanted this, that, you know father would have hated you in fighting rings!

Jacob rolled his eyes and sighed loud before replying.

_Souns gud, Neddy, wher it at?_

The response, though so long, was almost instant.

_Topping’s requires a pre-registration for the fights. I could try to get you into a fighting schedule within the week if you would like? It requires a name and a picture, people can begin to place bets early just based on names and looks. You could text me a good picture, then I could submit you for the end of the week?_

This was moving pretty quickly. Jacob was a little startled. He flipped through his phone until he found a good photo of himself, sending it to Ned. He got a brief little message of thanks, then silence.

“... Damn I got work!” He was amazed at how he went from jobless to a fight at the end of the week so fast. He always knew Ned as a guy to try to get things done as soon as possible, but he had no idea that it was that quick. A grin settling on his face, he brought his laundry downstairs to the laundry room, and texted a picture of it to Evie, just to prove to her that he was a responsible brother.

It was only a few minutes of waiting that the door to the laundry room opened and Evie walked in, dark hair pulled back in a bun and looking tired. She had a few bruises on her arms, wearing a plain t shirt and sweatpants. “So you’re actually getting things done I see.”

“And you act like I never do anything,” Jacob replied, grinning at her.

“You don’t,” Evie said, giving him an amused look. She leaned on a dryer, watching him. “I think this is the first time I’ve seen you do laundry.”

“Oh, this is not the first time!” Jacob snapped back.

“Mhm, mhm….. So did you put in the detergent?”

Jacob stared at his sister a moment, then swore quietly and stopped the washer to add the detergent into the slot. Evie laughed, shaking her head with joy. After Jacob got the detergent secure and the washer started, he leaned on it and looked up at her. For a moment he considered telling her about the fight he was going to prepare for, but he decided against it when her face got stern.

“What is it, Jacob?” She could always see through his guises.

“Nothing, just thinking about how tired you look.”

Evie’s expression told him she wasn’t convinced, but when she opened her mouth to speak, he realized he regretted the subject that he chose to discuss. “Well you know,” she said. “It wouldn’t be as exhausting if my brother were to come and join me in teaching.”

Jacob’s groan filled the room. He turned away from her, looking up at the ceiling. Why did it always have to come to that? Evie had reopened the defense school, just as father had wanted, yet she always tried to rope him into joining her. She was father’s legacy, not him. “I’m not interested in teaching self defense,” he said. “Besides, father wouldn’t have wanted me touching his school with my dirty hands anyway.”

“You know he would have been so happy to see you and I rebuilding his work,” Evie said, standing up straight. “Jacob, it’s been a month and you have hardly looked for work. You have the perfect job lined up and open for you, all you have to do is show up and follow directions.” She took a few steps to Jacob, pausing halfway there. “Can you just come with me to work tomorrow? You don’t even know if you’ll like it or not!”

They stood there in silence for a moment, Evie watching Jacob and Jacob staring up at the ceiling, looking angry and knuckles white from fisting his hands in anger. This happened often. Normally the two got along fine, but when father or work came up, it was as if nothing could break the barrier that would form for hours on end. Jacob refused to look at Evie, who eventually sighed and shook her head. “I’ll go get some dinner ready, then.” She turned and left the laundry room, leaving Jacob alone to wait for the washer to finish.

He sat scrolling on his phone, humming some music to himself. His blood was boiling, and he couldn’t shake that annoyance off. _What gives Evie the right to tell me what to do like that?_ he thought. _It’s my life and I’ll do what I want with it._ He kicked the washer in his anger, not caring that he put a slight dent into the side. He decided to take a look at the Topping’s instead.

The website was pretty miniscule. A bar. Lists of different drinks, weekly events. None of them were related to fighting. Was Ned pulling his leg? He began to look through every section of Topping’s website. Drinks, events, history, a picture of the owner and staff. The owner looked ridiculous, almost liked the Mad Hatter from Alice, Jacob thought. But no lists of fights. What was that about? Just as he was about to close out of the page, his thumb bumped the “Specials” list. There came up the list of drinks. Jacob found himself eyeing them. There were some nice ones, he admitted. He wouldn’t mind trying a few…

“Well hello…”

One caught his eye. A drink with many spicy ingredients, strong liquors. “The Brawler.” Each drink had a detailed list option. Jacob tapped it. Below the description of the drink was a link. Naturally, Jacob clicked that as well, and grinned when he found himself taken to a website with names, bets, and a fight club title. “Well this is nice…” He was quick to find the potential roster, proud to find his name and picture on the list. There weren’t any bets placed yet, seeing as he wasn’t yet scheduled. But Ned was good on his word. That was excellent.

The washer buzzed, catching his attention. The fight would have to wait.

* * *

 

Jacob could smell melting cheese when he kicked open the door to the apartment with freshly done laundry. Passing the kitchen, he paused to admire the pizza Evie had just taken out of the oven and cut. Only one piece was missing, and his stomach growled with desire. “Hush hush, you’ll get fed you little brat,” he mumbled to himself. He dumped his laundry on his bed before rushing back to the kitchen to get a slice of pizza.

Settling down on a green bean bag with four pizza slices, Jacob flipped on the television and to a movie, watching boredly as he ate. Evie was in the other beanie, eating her pizza and looking down at her phone. Jacob glanced over, no longer angry about their spat, and smirked. “Texting your boyfriend?”

He couldn’t stop himself from laughing when Evie almost choked on her pizza, staring up at him with shock on her face. “Henry is _not_ my boyfriend!” she snapped. Her cheeks were a bright red and she was practically attempting to hide her face in her phone. “Just a friend.”

“Oh, come on,” Jacob replied, rolling his eyes. “A cute little flower shop across the street the same time you reopen dad’s place? You two clicked instantly, it’s so adorable it’s disgusting.”

Evie shot a glare at him. “Mr. Green is not disgusting.”

“Ah, now you revert to that ‘Mr. Green’ nonsense, is it a kink?”

“Jacob!”

The brother accepted a pillow to the face with laughter, if only to know that he had sufficiently annoyed his sister. The two continued to eat in quiet after that, watching the movie with the comfort of two siblings who had nothing better to do that evening.

As it was beginning to get late, the clock ticking down the end of the night, Jacob’s phone buzzed once more. He took a look at it, keeping a cool demeanor so not to put suspicion in the drowsy Evie.

Ned. With good news.

Jacob read the message and grinned.

He had a date with the ring at the end of the week.


	3. The Day of the Match

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this is good! The next chapter is just gonna follow stuff after the match but I hope this is fulfilling I am proud of myself for managing to get stuff done I'm a speedy worker.

Finding where Evie stashed Jacob’s old gear was easy. She was too organized too fool Jacob. All he had to do was wait until she was out of the house and he got a stool and found the box stuffed in the back of the little hallway closet. It had his old hand wrap kit, still unfinished, along with some old clothes that he typically wore, a nice mouth guard that was unnoticeable (he wouldn’t take that with to an underground fight because he’s too good for that) and some extra kits for first aid he would bring to give to Ned. Stuffing it all in his gym bag, he grinned and felt satisfied.

Today was the big day to earn some cash.

He spent the month waiting around, looking for opportunities to show his skill. Everywhere else that required physical labor jobs would have squandered his talents, and Evie would have exploited his talents for such boring reasons. It was good to teach self defense, but that was something she did, not him. And he wanted to make a name for himself, not be the “other Frye twin” again like in Crawley.

And that could be done in the ring. His home. His safe place. Ironically.

Ned arrived and buzzed up, but Jacob never answered the buzz. He was sprinting down to meet the American with eagerness that likely put the man off. They greeted awkwardly - this was their first time seeing each other without Evie in the mix - and Ned brought Jacob to his car. It was just a little thing, Jacob tossing his bag in the trunk and feeling somewhat squished in the passenger’s seat. Ned didn’t seem at all bothered by the tight space - he was a pretty small guy, and had plenty of arm and leg room. Jacob was worried if he tried to stretch his legs he would break holes in the floor and reenact the Flintstones.

“So what’s the plan for today?” Jacob asked. “We have a few hours until we need to be there.”

“I was going to take you to get some updated stuff,” Ned replied. The car rolled forward, Jacob surprised the little thing could move at all. Was there even space for an engine in this thing?

“I have my own stuff, I just put it in the trunk,” Jacob said. He wasn’t sure he had enough money to get anything new, and he wouldn’t like the idea of Ned spending stuff on him. That wasn’t a really fair thing to do. Jacob was a bit wild and out there but he was always about fairness.

“Consider it my treat,” Ned replied. “I do plan on taking a small cut of your winnings, so don’t worry about me losing out on money tonight. I picked you because you’re a good fighter, and it was a safe bet, anyway. I need to get into more stuff like this.”

Jacob smirked. “You mean you ‘Ned’ to get into more stuff like this?”

The look of disapproval he got put him to shame.

The two drove in an awkward silence until they reached a sport shop. Ned seemed relaxed and wanting to take his time, but Jacob was in a bit of a hurry with it. “Ned, I have my own stuff, it’s fine,” he kept trying to tell the boy. Ned just shrugged him off and began to pick out some new and fresh hand wrap kits, an up-to-date first aid (Jacob found himself slightly embarrassed by it because his was so lacking in current required items) as well as a new pair of good boxing shorts for him. Plain and dark and simple. Jacob didn’t want to admit that his old ones were, well,  _ old _ , but he couldn’t deny he was grateful for a little new. Something new to start off his new career. Fresh start.

The two wandered the aisles aimlessly, and Jacob found himself looking at new mouth guards. They had some nice ones that were even more subtle than his old ones. You could barely tell he would be wearing one, and that was how he liked it. He eyed them up, biting his lip a little. He couldn’t wear one to an underground match. The whole point was to lose some teeth and get broken bones, not pretend to safeguard against it. Ned appeared beside him and looked them over and nodded a little. “We can get one if you want,” he offered.

“Whoa, no,” Jacob looked down at Ned, shaking his head. “It’s fine, I’ve got a good one of my own.”

“It’s old.”

“It’s still good. Besides, you don’t wear these to matches.”

“Some people do.”

“Yeah, the idiots.”

Ned shook his head. “Not the idiots,” he said. “The ones who are looking out for recruiters from the big leagues. You know almost every match there’s someone coming down looking for someone to train and get sponsored up? They take note of simple stuff like a mouth guard.”

Jacob rolled his eyes. Never once had he had an experience of a prospector coming through a match. You didn’t get those types in Crawley, typically. The idea of major professional fighting had never even crossed his mind. Yeah, he was a good fighter, but that didn’t mean he was a good fighter for those big wigs upstairs. He was just Jacob Frye, the guy who liked to kick ass at fight club and had a damn good time doing it. Not to mention there were almost no rules down in the dirty underground rings. How could those guys know if Jacob was wearing one of these little plain mouth guards anyway? He couldn’t imagine any prospector being close enough to be able to tell, how could they from so far away? “I don’t need one, I have my own, and I don’t use them in fights like this. Only ones around my sister or something.”

“Suit yourself,” Ned shrugged and gestured for him to follow. “Shall we then? We can grab some food before we go, we’ll be right on time for the evening matches before yours.” He hesitated. “... Evie isn’t suspicious is she?” He looked a little nervous. He was one to go behind people’s backs a lot, Jacob knew that much. But he knew that Ned was also very honest somehow, and was always nervous about being caught.

“Oh please,” Jacob said with a smile. “She thinks her two favorite boys… who aren’t Greenie… are having some bonding time with a movie and gossip. She won’t think twice.” And Jacob knew this - he was always so convincing.

* * *

 

Robert Topping was a strange man.

That outfit that was in his photo, he wore that as Jacob and Ned entered the bar. The moment his eyes settled on Jacob, the man’s entire face lit up and he walked over quickly. Many of the people getting drinks ignored them, barely a glance, but for Mr. Topping, Jacob was all the world at that moment. “Mr. Frye! You’re here, good!” He shook Jacob’s hand with a firm grip, patting his shoulder with the other. “Welcome! Welcome! And Mr. Wynert, good to see you!” He reached and shook Ned’s hand, who looked a little caught off-guard and fumbled with the handshake. “You’re just in time! The drinks are just being made!” He gave a little wink before walking around the bar.

Jacob was a little surprised at how quickly everything moved with Topping. The man held open a door to the back, smiling pleasantly and giving off a cheery vibe. Ned pushed on Jacob’s back a little and the younger twin walked to the back, finding himself following a series of different halls and stairs, until finally it opened up to a large basement stadium full of people. The ring in the middle was alive and alight, and Jacob felt his stomach twist, but it strangely felt nice. It felt like he was just getting home again.

Topping rounded in front of Jacob, Ned just behind the two. He kept his hand on the middle of Jacob’s back, light and barely touching. Jacob couldn’t tell if Ned was trying to be comforting, or if he wasn’t a little nervous himself. Ned didn’t seem like the kind of guy to be caught in a place like this. “This way, this way!” Topping distracted Jacob from his friend, and the two followed him to one side of the ring. “Over there’s the changing rooms! Be careful not to get in one that’s occupied!” Topping winked again and Jacob couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes. Topping didn’t look at all hurt by that gesture. “Just get yourself ready, you have a roster number and everything. You can stay in the ring as long as you like, but please make sure to sign the waiver at the counter there. If you decide to stay in the ring longer than you’re physically capable, that’s not my fault!”

Ned patted Jacob’s back as they approached the counter. “Are you gonna be fine here by yourself?” he mumbled. “I was going to go to the betting table and see how we’re doing, and maybe pitch in a bit for you. See where it leads us.”

Jacob shrugged, signing his name on the little waiver before handing it to a worker who was smoking behind the counter and reading some book of obscure poetry. He turned to Ned, raising a brow. “Do  _ you  _ going to be fine here by yourself?” Jacob felt satisfied by the look he was given by Ned. “Well you just look a little nervous. Try not to pick any fights, okay?” He watched the boy go, then went to find a seat by the ring to wait. He kicked back among some roughhousing men, taking no interest in their fighting. He was going to save up his energy for the brawl.

A match began not long into Jacob’s waiting, but he wasn’t very interested in it. His eyes watched those fighters, but he knew he wouldn’t be facing any of them. They were too far ahead in the ranks, and if what Ned was saying was true, many people did their easy pickings before clearing out.

So far that proved to be true. The two men brawled, one reigned champion, and they both left the ring without further quarrel. Back in Crawley, Jacob would sometimes fight the same man twice. The first was the normal round, the second was fighting over who got to stay in the ring and who left. Jacob usually always one both fights.

More men climbed into the ring, and Jacob felt ready to doze off. He watched with boredom, sleep tugging on his eyelids. Then he began to hear two men whispering just beside him. Their voices were low and they were glancing around, one raising his hand a little. They pointed, looked in that direction, nodded, and continued to whisper. Normally Jacob wouldn’t have cared what his peers were mumbling about if he had not heard the word “recruiter”. So there was someone here.

“... there…” one whispered. The man nodded over, and Jacob sat up a little, arms crossed over his chest, to where they were looking. He could barely make out the man with the wild raven hair, but when he did, he definitely stood out. A nice outfit, blacks and bright reds that seemed to dance on his thin form. He was leaning back boredly in his chair, eyes going over the waiting fighters. He didn’t seem satisfied by what he was seeing. His hair was pulled back yet somehow flying everywhere in a mess. His eyes dark and just as wild, too. Jacob could see a little twitch to his moustache, thin but nice, even from this distance.

“He’s one of the most important ones,” a fighter mumbled. “For Starrick, he puts his sponsors on only the best.”

Starrick? With this man as his recruiter?

Jacob watched, eyed narrowed.

Interesting.

He was caught by surprise when the man turned and looked at him. For a moment, Jacob was staring right into his eye, and he could see something burning in them. From across the ring, there was something dangerous, exciting, free, alluring about that look in his eyes. Jacob felt for a moment like his breath was lost. It wasn’t necessarily the man that did it - it was that demeanor of his. Jacob found himself determined to be the one who caught this man’s interest.

As a recruiter of course.

He deflated when the man looked away from him with distaste. The man didn’t seem very impressed by his looks. Jacob wasn’t quite the biggest guy around, he was pretty average in height and muscle. But for anything he lacked, Jacob made up with in quick movements, wit, and endurance. He was the best in Crawley, and even if nobody was going to make any comments, give him a word of encouragement…

He was gonna kick ass anyway.

And impress the recruiter whether he wanted to be or not.


	4. 1st Degree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay this is like super short but I kind of wanted it to be sorry it's so short. I hope you're all liking it though!
> 
> I'm having some pretty bad mental health problems right now so chapters might be pretty short and not around as much but I plan on making time to write despite that. Thank you for being patient!!

The first thing that Jacob saw when he woke up was that card on his nightstand. His face buried into his pillows, staring at it with exhaustion. The clock beside it was early afternoon. He had spent most the night at Ned’s then in the morning came home and crashed in his room. Evie didn’t seem to suspect a thing, majority of Jacob’s injuries were under his clothes or he knew how to use concealers well enough. Still, his eye was getting pretty black and there was a big bruise on his cheek. Concealer probably wasn’t enough to hide it.

Maxwell Roth.

The little card had his attention more than anything else. He’d never met any recruiters before. The man looked like he barely belonged there, but at the same time Jacob couldn’t picture him anywhere else. His wild look, his rage, whatever it was burning in him, it was strange and fascinating. Ned had given him a very stern lecture as they had left the place not to call the man. He had even tried to snatch the card from Jacob, who had managed to pretend like he had lost it when packing up at the ring. Ned seemed to think that this Mr. Roth was a dangerous guy, or at least not one to mess around with.

But Jacob liked to mess.

He got up, shifting to crack his back, and let out a sigh of relief. He was always a stiff sleeper after a fight. It felt good to unwind his body. Clothes were all over the floor again, even though he did laundry only a few days before in the week. Digging around through the mess, Jacob found some clean ones and slipped them on - a t-shirt and sweats - and he went out of his bedroom to go get some food. The growl of his stomach was right on cue as he headed down the small hallway.

Evie was sitting in the living room with some papers. Jacob figured she was planning stuff for her classes, or coming up with a step-by-step scheme to ask out Greenie. He rolled his eyes and yawned, arms stretching above his head. “If you’re going to plan it out that much, I could always just go ask him out for you,” Jacob muttered. He couldn’t help but draw attention to himself, even when his black eye and bruised cheek would be obvious now and he should be hiding it. There wasn’t much point in trying to sneak things past Evie. He and Ned already had their cover.

“This isn’t a plan to ask out Mr. Green!” Evie shot, glaring up at him. The widening of her eyes and the slackening of her jaw signaled to Jacob that she was seeing his injuries. “What happened?” She stood up and went to him before he could take another two steps, grabbing his wrist and her other hand touching his eye and cheek. Typical protective big sister. “Who did this? How did you get this? Tell-”

Eyes locked.

Eyes narrowed.

“... You were fighting weren’t you.”

She didn’t even ask. It was a statement.

Jacob had rehearsed the lie many times last night but it almost didn’t come out right. Evie’s accusing stare always put him on edge. Still, he was no longer overpowered by it. “Ned and I went to get supper,” he said coolly. “And some guys jumped us. Ned thought he knew a little shortcut, and I had to be his human shield.”

Evie stared him down and shook her head after a moment. “Go to the bathroom and put some stuff on those okay?”

Jacob saw her take her phone out as he turned. Texting Ned. But the story had been Ned’s idea.

The little bathroom had some salves and pain relievers, and Jacob took them all with happiness. He lingered in the bathroom a little, just to give Evie the idea that he was doing more. He liked to seem “responsible” to her. He was already pretty responsible but she never seemed to think so. It was irritating. When he came out of the bathroom, Evie was back in the living room and seated, working on her notes and documents. She didn’t look up as Jacob passed. At least of all the things she could have been annoyed about, it wasn’t that Jacob had slept most of the day away.

There wasn’t very much in the kitchen of interest. The younger twin ended up just getting a bowl of cereal and leaning on the counter and eating. At first he was completely absent minded, his entire focus on his food, but as his stomach was satisfied with the offering, Jacob thought of that little card in his room, that man who had approached him.

It could be a shot at the big leagues. A chance to really make a name for himself.

He glanced into the living room at Evie.

How could he tell Evie that he was fighting and might actually have the opportunity?

Ned didn’t like the guy, but Jacob thought he was charming. The way he complimented Jacob… The man closed his eyes and let out a low breath. He was embarrassed to admit how good it felt for someone to say nice things to him. Evie was usually nagging at him, disapproving of him. Father was… Things were difficult there. Ned gave minimal compliments beyond saying that he heard Jacob was a good fighter. He barely gave Jacob recognition after his fighting beyond making sure he wasn’t too injured for a street brawl. In all his memory, Jacob couldn’t recall the last time someone said something so decent, so openly, and honest and genuine to him as that Roth did last night.

_ I’d love to work with the toughest man I’ve ever seen in this fighting business. _

Jacob knew he was good at fighting. He knew he wasn’t like the usual fighters. Many trained with coaches, or people who had training from coaches. Always coaches. Evie was taught by father. Jacob learned by picking fights, moving on his instinct. There was a part of the pit of his stomach that could predict. He would get a feeling in his chest, and move accordingly. He moved differently from a trained fighter, who followed moves step by step.

He fought like a warrior and a wild beast. Unpredictable and swift and fierce.

That little card was in his room on his nightstand. Maxwell Roth. A golden opportunity.

A bowl of cereal half eaten, left forgotten on the kitchen counter. Just a quick walk to his bedroom, picking up his phone and the little card. Dial the number. It was all so smooth. He went to the far edge of his bedroom, farthest away from the door. Leaning against the window, he looked out onto the afternoon sky. There he was, waiting for someone to answer.

“Hello, Alhambra Hall service.”

The voice on the phone was dull and tired. It didn’t sound anything like that man at the ring. It didn’t have that life, that fire, whatever it was that interested Jacob.

“Ah, yes, hello,” Jacob kept his voice low, shifting from one foot to the other. “This is Jacob Frye. Last night I met a Mr. Maxwell Roth and he gave me a card? I was wondering if I could speak to him?”

There was a moment of silence on the phone. Jacob suddenly worried if he had called the wrong number.

“I’ll transfer you to Mr. Roth. Please hold a moment.”

It was barely even a second before that voice came on the phone.

“Mr. Frye! Good afternoon! I’m glad you called!”

Jacob could feel fire licking at his ear and cheek and neck, spilling out of his phone. It burned, and he wanted more instantly. He knew he was making the right decision.

“I called about your offer last night.”

“Yes, yes! Starrick’s troupe, yes? I recruit and help sponsor for a time, train you up to get into his little band of thugs!” The laugh on the other end of the phone caused Jacob’s eardrum to catch fire. It quickly spread to his veins, and all throughout his body.

“I’m… I’m interested. I want you to sponsor me, train me. I want to get higher up. I’m ready. I don’t want to be the guy from Crawley.”

There was a moment of silence on the phone, but the burning that was ripping at Jacob’s skin wasn’t going away, so he didn’t feel worried at all. When Roth spoke again, however, Jacob almost felt relief at the fire in his lungs. “I have some time this evening. Would you care to come here and chat about it and make up a nice little contract for this deal? Of course, you can stop by and wait to actually decide another day.”

There  _ were _ other sponsors and trainers…

“No,” Jacob said. “I want to partner with you.” He wanted to partner with this dragon.

“Alright, little bird,” Roth said. His voice quieted politely, but Jacob felt as though his skin was burned to the bone. “Stop by around seven thirty. The address is on your card. I assume you still have it?”

“Yes,” Jacob replied. “Though I must say, business cards are a little old school, you don’t have a website you refer to or anything?” He liked that laugh on the phone. His brain began to boil.

“I prefer personal meetings,” Roth replied. “Seeing in person, a deep connection, not ‘here’s a link now fuck off!’ Obviously my tactics worked if I pulled in the strongest man in London.”

There it was again. Jacob’s heart overheated. It caught alight. A compliment. A genuine one. “Well, it certainly seemed to have worked, I suppose.” He was painfully aware that his voice was a little shaky. He hated how shy he was when he was complimented. Roth could probably hear it, too.

“Well, I will see you tonight little bird. Make sure you don’t keep me waiting.”

“O… Okay. Yeah. Goodbye.”

Jacob could hardly bring himself to hang up. It was a short conversation, but he had to drop his phone. That man was living, breathing, burning passion and ferocity. The youngest Frye had to raise a hand to touch his cheek and check if there was soot on his face. The moment that Roth would speak, cities would burn. Hell would rise. All the heat and rage and passion and warmth and fire would pull together into one deadly force, shake the earth, burn it all to the ground.

Jacob didn’t know what that was before. Armageddon? The apocalypse?

Now he knew it had a name. It was Maxwell Roth.

And he was excited.


	5. The Blighter Himself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhuhuhuhuuhhuhuhuhuhuuhuhu

Getting away from Evie that evening proved to be more difficult than Jacob had anticipated. She wanted to fuss over his injuries, make him some food, and lecture him on safety. That was her usual way of handling his fighting. Try to teach and show him where he made mistakes. But that’s now Jacob Frye fought. He fought to fight, not to defend himself. He never made mistakes. Her lecturing was difficult to sit through, but she seemed surprised enough that he actually sat and listened that the lecture was only for a short while. Jacob didn’t realize that if he actually pretended to care about her nagging she would get through it faster. He’d have to remember that for future use.

He took a cab to the Alhambra. It was easier than trying to get Evie’s keys from her. The twins could both drive but the car was Evie’s, and they both knew it and so Jacob trying to argue for it was usually pointless. According to Evie, once Jacob got a “real job” and a salary he could afford his own car. As if he couldn’t make enough money fighting for his own at some point… if he quit buying antique guns of course.

The cab took quite a ways to reach his destination. Across the Thames, into a nicer part of London. Jacob always prefered the rougher areas himself,the more middle and lower classes. That was usually where the fun was to be had. It was fascinating to see the nicer streets of London, a little more cleaned up. It wasn’t a total posh place, just nicer dressed and a little more formal than Jacob’s liking. It was probably a place Evie would fit in better. But she always did prefer the slums, too. Her self defense school was in a bad part of town, meant to teach people who were more susceptible to violence to get the help they needed. Jacob did admire that about his sister. That was what she did.

The Alhambra wasn’t exactly what Jacob had expected. It looked more like a theater than a fighting ring. This was even a recommended place to get training when he first looked around in London. Seeing the signs, the entrance… This wasn’t at all what he had expected to see. Maybe it was the wrong place?

Unfortunately Jacob had already paid his driver, who sped off before he could turn around and make any declaration that he might be in the wrong location.

“Jerk…”

The doors were dark and lovely, looked as they had quite a bit of wear on them. Many people coming and going, it looked, but Jacob didn’t see anyone coming in or out since he arrived on the steps. Looking up and around at the façade, Jacob walked into the building.

The lobby was dim and bathed in red. Red carpets, red decorations, red armchairs and sofas. Red and black and dark and warm and strange. The entire building carried that same feeling as Roth, that strange intensity. Glowing chandeliers dangled from the ceiling, little bits of light dancing off them. Sparks, to Jacob.

He was met by a tall, stern faced man. This man’s expression was blank, it looked as though there was not much of that light or life within this man. Jacob was approached, a little bow, and a gesture into the theater. This was new to Jacob, he never really experienced formality. Let alone formalities like that. There wasn’t even a word spoken between them, which was odd. However the man knew it was Jacob arriving, Jacob had no idea and wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know.

The theater was vast. The building was much bigger on the inside than out, Multiple levels of seating, and the stage was grand. Lights all on, lighting up that wooden stage, and Jacob now saw why this place was recommended. The stage had a ring on it, and the backstage, only partially visible, had lots of training gear, machines, dummies to practice on. It was a whole gym just to get into the fight, to gain strength. Empowerment. To win.

Jacob followed the man up onto the stage, around to the back. He was led to a door, one that blended in fairly with the rest of the place, Jacob barely noticed it until the man guiding him stopped and knocked. There was shuffling from within, then the door swung open. And there Roth stood, grinning at Jacob the moment their eyes locked.

Jacob felt as though his eyes burned from the intensity of this man, and he walked into the office once Roth stepped to the side for him, arms gesturing for him to enter. The office had an array of things in it that caught Jacob by surprise. A whole shelf of manuscripts, books, all looking like plays and musicals and different numbers to him. It seemed well organized but a little bit cluttered. The other wall was full of trophies and medals, many related to fighting but some not. There was a detailed map of london with various little pins in it. Jacob wasn’t sure what the pins were for, but he didn’t really care either. The desk was beautiful. Intricate patterns, smooth and rolling up. It looked like it was springing up from the  floor, wooden blocks and beams wrapping around each other and fitting together nicely. The chair was large and plush behind it. On the desk sat a tiny crow, sitting on a little perch. It’s head was tucked in and it looked as if it was asleep. Roth reached and pet it absentmindedly, a small coo and a little head raise as a response before it nestled back for sleep.

Sitting across from one another, Roth was grinning and Jacob was stiff in his seat. He couldn’t help himself - something about the man made him feel like he had something to prove. Normally he didn’t care for opinions, any of that, but this was different. He wasn’t sure it was because he was a recruiter or… something else.

“It was nice of you to stop by, Mr. Frye,” Roth said. His voice was full of energy, and he slid a few papers across his desk to Jacob. “I got some little contracts all ready if you want to take a look. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to amend. I don’t usually like to have small talk, just getting right into business!”

The man was so interesting, and Jacob forced himself to look at the documents and focus instead of trying to speak right to the man. Things seemed decent and fair. Roth had good connections, would set up fights and for information to go around so that his talent spread. Roth would take care of any supplies needed, and also take a little bit of the earnings. He would train and make sure Jacob was always in good health, and would bring him up in prowess until he could be sponsored by Crawford Starrick, a man of big business in the ring. The earnings seemed oddly in Jacob’s favor, which caught him by surprise. He looked up at Roth, and pointed to it. “You… You don’t actually want more?”

“Jacob,” Roth leaned on the desk. That was a surprising change in formalities. “I’ll be honest with you. Starrick pays me quite a bit to train up and improve his future sponsors. Since I get paid that much, there’s no point in leeching off you any more than I have to. It’s enough for gear, basic medical, the lot.”

It almost seemed too good to be true. But Jacob couldn’t find anything he didn’t like within this contract. It seemed completely in his favor, and even though that was surprising, Jacob didn’t object to it. Whatever that Starrick guy was paying him, apparently it was more than enough for Roth to get by.

“Well, sure.” Jacob looked up at Roth, who had been watching him intently. That made Jacob feel a little warm. The man hadn’t taken his eyes off Jacob for even a second. Was he really all that interesting? The strongest man in London… But he wasn’t all that interesting. Nobody seemed to think so.

Roth watched him a moment longer before handing a pen to the young twin. “If you’d sign those lines, that would be nice of you, Jacob.” His voice was low, and Jacob had difficulty going through and looking for the places to sign. Roth seemed patient enough with him, but also now relaxed enough to gab.

“How long you been in London, Jake?”

The formalities really did change quickly. “A little over a month,” he replied. “Just figured moving would open up different opportunities.” He cringed a little. “Family business here, too. Sister has been trying to get me to help her out with it, but it’s not my thing.”

“Ah, the family business.” Roth nodded a little and leaned back in his chair. As he did, his little crow cheeped and woke, flying briefly to sit on his hand, perched carefully at the wrist. Roth pet him absentmindedly. “I had my own problems with family business. Nothing like getting into the contracts and big cities to change someone’s mind, though.”

“Yeah, well I moved to the big city only to have working for the family business shoved down my throat.”

The papers exchanged hands once again as Roth began to take a look at them, making sure Jacob didn’t miss a place. His hands were in gloves, the little crow now comfortable on one of the arms of his chair and watching Jacob with dark, curious eyes. Roth’s hands, though. Jacob eyed them a moment. Gloved, but he could see the control of them, careful and precise. The gloves looked as though they were meant to stop Roth from singing everything he touched. Protecting the world from him, not him from the world. “So what’s with this place, anyway? It’s a theater right?”

Those wild eyes looked up and almost through Jacob, and Roth nodded. “This place is magnificent, innit?” He gestured up and around himself. “A big, beautiful theater! Didn’t take too much to fix it up, and add all my equipment. I feel right at home here.”

“But why a theater?” Jacob glanced over at the bookshelf of plays and manuscripts.

“A part of my life,” Roth said. “It’s a dull story, I won’t bother to get into it with you, Jacob. But I rather like it here. Got charm and everything I need to keep up a good business.” He laughed and pet his crow, looking Jacob over thoughtfully. “I would like for you to stop by every other day for some training and scheduling fights, if that was decent to you.”

Scorch marks all along Jacob’s body were forming from Roth’s eyes going from his face to his lap, his arms, and around. Jacob shifted in his seat, trying to ignore the burning. They looked each other in the eye again and Jacob had to use all his willpower to keep himself looking into those eyes. He wasn’t used to someone else being this confident around him, this open yet controlled and a dash of rogue and a pinch of rage.

“Yes, I can stop by tomorrow around noon if you’d like,” Jacob replied. “It would be fun to get started right away.”

Roth smirked, raising a brow at him. “You don’t want to rest up and clear that pretty face of yours?”

Two emotions hit Jacob like a shot in the chest. Anger with a bit of embarrassment that Roth mentioned his black eye and bruise. A fluttering and flip of his stomach that Roth said he had a pretty face.

“These?” Jacob was painfully aware of how awkward his laugh was. “They’re nothing! They’ll heal up in no time. Don’t worry about any of that!”

Roth moved so quick Jacob couldn’t even flinch. He was mostly out of his seat, a hand reached forward and cupped Jacob’s cheek. All of Jacob’s face grew hot, their eyes locked and unwavering. He grin on Roth’s face, it was venomous and fascinating and Jacob couldn’t tell what malicious thoughts were in that man’s head. The hand on his cheek, though gloved, burned with such an intensity Jacob wanted to cry out in pain, but he swallowed the noise. He realized he wasn’t even breathing, just staring. What was-

Roth’s thumb pressed hard into his cheek. Not just any spot on his cheek. The big dark bruise. His covered thumb crushed against that sensitive, purpling flesh. Jacob felt intense pain shoot from the injury to his eyes, his tongue, up into his brain and down his spine. Jacob kept the biting pain down in his stomach, but when Roth pressed harder he flinched back and was unable to stop a soft yelp in his throat.

“What the hell was that for?” Jacob rubbed his cheek, the bruise stinging and soreness spreading to his face.

“You should make sure to let those heal up more before you come to my ring,” Roth replied, leaning back in his chair. “Jacob, my dear, you should call me in a week’s time, we’ll figure out a schedule for when you come in and get all your fights arranged. Deal?”

My dear…

Jacob nodded slowly, his breath lost.

“Here,” Roth scribbled a little number on a paper pad and handed it to him. “My personal number. You can call or text anytime.”

Jacob stood slowly and pocketed the number. His cheek burned.

My dear.


	6. Feats of Strength

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like thiiiiiiis I'm glad I can make this sorry ah yes I'm just very happy please let me know what you think!

Pulses of energy.

Lightning in your fingertips, all the way up to the forehead. Spikes of direction. The pit of the stomach twisting. Move left. Duck. Right, now. Take a moment to breathe. You can’t fight if you can’t breathe. There’s an opening right there, his elbow is just slightly enough to the side that you can reach.

Reach.

Jacob’s mind was barely speaking, yet yelling at him all at once. The man in front of him was big. Really big. Tall, strong, a little scary. Jacob was in disbelief when Roth put him in a fight with this guy. The money was mostly all bet on the monster before him. People cheered him on, leaving Jacob only with Roth leaning on the ring and watching intently. There had only been a little bit of training. Roth wanted to see what Jacob could do close up, details, and make adjustments. Now he was seeing what Jacob could do in a real fight, not a practice fight.

Most of the boys he’d taken on had been smaller than this. Even the big ones were easy to manage. Jacob was appalled at how massive this man was. How did Roth expect him to get in the ring with this walking fortress? All of Jacob’s energy could barely take him down!

The reach and pull Jacob planned to knock his enemy off balance didn’t work. Worse than didn’t work. The guy was somehow so big and quick, too. He grabbed Jacob’s hand, twisted it hard. Jacob let out a pained gasp, eyes locking with Roth. The man looked disappointed and Jacob felt almost sick. No, he had to impress him. Prove himself. Roth said he was strong, now he had to be. Jacob felt the man let go of his arm but a rough kick right to the middle of his back propel him forward and into the side of the ring. Jacob clutched the ring just to keep on his feet, chest heaving. Roth was there, quickly lifting Jacob’s face and looking him over.

Jacob’s old bruises were mostly healed, but now his lip was bleeding, his shoulder bleeding, his stomach bruised all over. There was a pain in his chest he could barely process, and his lungs hurt. One of his knees wobbled, ready to give out. Roth wasn’t even fully visible, one eye was swelling, and blood leaked down from his nose. Roth’s face was blank, and he use his leather-clad thumb to wipe away some blood. There were no words spoken, but something felt comforting about it.

Using the ring to get fully back into his stance, Jacob turned from Roth, eyes set on the mass of flesh waiting for him across the ring. He wasn’t going to just let this guy win. Raising his arms, Jacob’s fists protecting his face, and he watched the man’s movements. His opponent was well guarded, his limbs like shields. It wasn’t easy to find an opening, with how fast he was.

“Come on, little bird.”

Roth’s voice was so soft behind him, but Jacob felt a tingle down his spine. Since they began to interact, he had been called “darling” “dear” and “little bird” many times. It seemed like something that was normal for Roth, nothing personal, but Jacob felt a spike of energy every time he heard that. Why, he didn’t know. But right now, he didn’t care.

“What? You scared you’re gonna break me?” Jacob grinned at the man as they began to circle again. He watched the man’s movements, trying to find an opening. “You can’t break shit!”

The man took a few steps forward, and Jacob responded by doing the same. The man hesitated. He had expected Jacob to step back. After being hit in the ring so much, the man obviously expected Jacob to lie down and quit.

“You don’t get it!” Jacob felt blood in his mouth. He knew his range. This was perfect.

“I don’t quit.”

Jacob’s blood got right in the man’s eye when Jacob spit. There were no rules in underground fighting besides “don’t kill your opponent” and sometimes even that rule got ignored. The man doubled back, hands reaching up to wipe away the blood.

Darting forward, Jacob’s fists were able to collide with the man’s gut, right in the softest places of his stomach and sides. The man doubled over, still blinded by red, and the next was Jacob’s palms slamming into his ears, knocking together. The man let out a yell, but the little bird was not done. His nails dug into the man’s head, and he dragged the man’s face down. Jacob’s knee arched up to meet it, and a sickening noise filled the ring as his knee collided with the man’s nose and face.

Jacob jumped back as the man took a loose swing, and he spit a little more blood on him for good measure. Who ever said internal bleeding was bad for you must have been wrong because Jacob was really enjoying getting blood on this massive asshole’s face. Reaching the edge of the ring, Jacob leaned on it and took a few breaths. He felt a little dizzy, something was pressing against his lungs in an uncomfortable way and Jacob wasn’t too sure he wanted to know what it was.

But he wasn’t about to let the brick wall of a man regain his sense. That wouldn’t be very fair. Jacob leaned only a moment longer on the rails before sucking in one final deep breath and sprinting forward. He wasn’t even noticed by his opponent, but that was more than okay. That was preferred. Jacob got enough of a sprint in, then his feet pushed him off the ground. This was going to be fun.

His feet collided with the man’s stomach. Jacob’s entire body followed, knocking down the wall. “And there goes the fortress!” he couldn’t help but laugh, even though he collapsed on the ground right beside the fallen man. It felt to Jacob as though the whole room shook when that monster fell. He lied in the dirt, listening to the yelling, barely able to process. He saw the man lying there next to him, and he grinning, blood dripping from his mouth. He looked up a little and saw Roth, eyebrows raised, watching him. Jacobs grin only widened and he gave Roth his signature smile, featuring the blood on his face and the damaged skin. Roth’s hands gestured for him to get up, and with some struggling, Jacob got onto his knees. He sat there, in the blood on the floor, looking around at the ring, who were cheering and also shouting in anger that they lost their bets. Jacob wiped some blood from his face, legs tucked under him. Laughter bubbled in his chest. It was a soft chuckle, then increased into full laughter. He raised his arms, and he felt so good at the noise around him, people cheering him. He fell back, laying with his back and stared up at the ceiling. He won.

And he fell unconscious.

* * *

 

Roth was the first to climb into the ring. He went right over to Jacob, picking him up carefully and getting Jacob’s arm over his shoulder. He pulled Jacob against him and walked him out of the ring to a chair. Setting him down carefully, Roth didn’t waste much time looking Jacob over. The boy took quite a few blows. He had a few opponents before that beast, but Roth had simply wanted to know what Jacob did in a fight. Sure, he watched him a few weeks ago in that fight that ended up getting him recruited, but Roth wanted to see it close up. No training ring or practice fights could get you the real deal like a fight for money could.

Jacob was a prize. Even when he looked like he was going to fall unconscious, Roth could see him  _ force _ energy into his body for another punch. Roth had watched how calculating Jacob was. Every moment he took with care. He wasn’t taking risks. He was fighting to win every time. Even when he was outmatched, the spit of blood… Roth saw how Jacob’s entire body seemed to glow when Roth muttered to him. Energy and excitement. Jacob was something else entirely.

Laying there in the chair unconscious, Roth admired him as he bandaged him up. Toned chest, Roth could see some of the worst places and made sure to bandage them up tight enough. Likely something was damaged in there, he would have to get Jacob to go to a doctor. His shoulder was bleeding and Roth wiped it away, cleaning carefully. His arms were well built. They weren’t fighter’s arms, to him, though. Worker’s arms. Jacob bore the body of a worker. Not a fighter.

His face was sculpted with care, Roth noticed. A fine jaw, his nose was smooth and nice, though right now it was swollen and bleeding. He had a few scars on his face, and if Roth didn’t clean up the new ones he would certainly have more. Roth touched his cheek, and stared a moment at the boy. He was interesting, that was something Roth was certain of. Damn beautiful, too. A fierce fighter, but also having a childish confidence, loud and proud and ready for anything. It was strangely endearing.

Every now and again Jacob made a noise of pain, but Roth ignored it. Jacob seemed completely unconscious still, even if he was reacting to the pain. When he dabbed at the blood from his nose, Roth realized he must have pressed a little bit too hard against the man’s nose because Jacob flinched, eyes opening wide and a drowning gasp coming from deep within his throat. He sat up, looking around, then down at himself. He looked dizzy, and Roth reached and put his hands on Jacob to steady him and calm him. “Focus. Focus.” His voice was commanding. “Jacob, darling, focus on me. You won. You’re just beat up, you brat.”

Jacob stared at him, his eyes looking a little unfocused. Roth would check for a concussion in a minute. He did take a bad blow to the head. Roth watched him figure out where he was, a little relieved when Jacob slumped and looking around. Grabbing the boy by the chin, he began to clean up Jacob, annoyed by a little whine of protest. “What, you’d rather do all this yourself?” he said. “By all means!” When he began to stand up, he felt Jacob’s hand weakly grab his shirt  tail and he grinned. “Exactly. You need me right now, otherwise I wouldn’t be bothering, little bird.”

He crouched and continued to work on cleaning and bandaging him up. “You can rest at the Alhambra tonight, we’ll just have your little friend contact your sister that you’ll be out. Got it?”

Jacob stared at Roth a bit and slowly nodded. “You better not have brain damage from this one. I just got you, there’s no way I’m gonna give you up that easy. And now that I know your style, you can be damn well sure we’re going to improve upon it. Don’t fix something that ain’t broken, eh, dear?”

Jacob’s smile was weak, but so full of joy and happiness. The boy really did love compliments.

What a cute brat.


	7. Pulse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kind of a filler chapter but I also like it in terms of the twin dynamic and how Roth fits into it. Also a little glimpse at what Evie does, yay!
> 
> Sorry all my chapters are so short I hope that's not annoying.

Evie Frye wasn’t stupid. She had never been easily fooled, not even by her twin who had figured the ins and outs of her personality and all her blind spots. When he returned home the afternoon after the fight, bruised and bandaged with prescription painkillers, Evie had grounded the fighter to his room while she got on the phone and yelled at Ned for allowing Jacob to get involved in such a sport. Jacob didn’t mind that he was being treated like a child, his destination had been his room anyway. He had taken a little bed in the Alhambra that night of the fight and slept for hours, Roth just in the next room doing some paperwork and then training a few others while Jacob snoozed. Even after over ten hours, he didn’t feel satisfied with his sleep. He took his medicine, crawled into bed, and wrapped himself up in the blankets. Evie had always made fun of him for that since they were little. He preferred to cocoon himself in his blankets, two or three layers of comfort, and press his face into the warmth and sleep like that. Dog piles were fun on hot days or good days. Cocoons were good for bad days or sick days. Or after particularly bad fights.

His head throbbed as he heard Evie yelling from the hallway. “Ned why didn’t you tell me about this?” she barked. “... Well he’s not supposed to be fighting, do you know how terrifying it is for him to come home like this?... What you do mean you weren’t with him, who was he with, someone obviously took care of - ugh fine, bye.”

The door opened, and Jacob groaned as Evie entered the room. “Go away…” he mumbled, rolling in his blanket cave.

“I told you,” her voice was harsh, and Jacob’s ears ached. “No. More. Fighting. And what did you do? What did you do when I told you no more fighting?”

“I went and fought,” he replied. He could barely see her among his mess of covers. “Evie can you not talk so loud the doctor says I have a minor concussion and it’s really annoying to have you yell at me.”

The twins watched each other for a moment, and Jacob cringed when a sad sigh passed through Evie. Here we go. The mother show.

The elder twin sat on the edge of the bed, her hand moving and pushing some of the blankets from Jacob’s face to see him clearly. “It’s scary,” she said. “Since we were little I promised to always protect you. Seeing you like this…” Her fingers brushed one of his bruises and she looked pained. “I wanted us to come to London to get away from all that. To maybe help you find something better, Crawley was so bad for you. I thought we could reopen dad’s business, that you could find a way to control this…”

Jacob hated that she was so motherly to him, but it felt soothing all the same. Growing up without a mother, a biased father, and a very bitter uncle figure being a caretaker, Jacob had often looked at Evie more as a mother than a sister. Since he couldn’t go to his father growing up, Evie had always been his comfort, advice. He could hardly imagine living without her there, present. Even if she got on his nerves, these moments reminded him how important she was to him. How wonderful she was.

“You have to stop this,” she said. She brushed some stray hair from his forehead. “I’m not going to watch you damage yourself. You’re my brother. When you hurt, I hurt. When you break, I break.”

Jacob closed his eyes and shifted, breathing deep. It hurt to, but he felt he needed as much air as he could. There wasn’t much to say back, because he knew Evie’s stance. He hated the fact that Evie always denied why they were there in London. Crawley had been a nightmare that last year. Jacob had been holding in his feelings against his father, letting it build up every day they found something new. He had been dead for years, but while Evie had moved on, Jacob was still stuck. His father loved to quote from old works. A man in the crowd at a match was giving his fighter a pep talk, Jacob heard some silly quote his father had spewed and he had just lost it. As though he was unconscious, Jacob had to leave the match once he realized he had broken that man’s arm. Not even a fighter. Someone watching. Leaving Crawley after those last few months had been a breath of fresh air, Evie pretending as though it was all because she wanted to open up father’s school. But they both knew it was for Jacob, and Evie couldn’t stand to make him leave alone. Twins didn’t go on exile alone.

But the ring was a calling for Jacob. Like any drug, any addiction, Jacob couldn’t stay away for long. The fights he was in now, it felt fresh and new. He felt like an up-and-coming fighter again. He felt good, fulfilled. Ned believed in him, Roth… Roth was something else. Roth saw his worth, wanted to bring out whatever it was in Jacob that he couldn’t access alone. This last fight had been a test. Jacob  felt like he passed it with flying colors. Roth knew his potential. Roth would make him great. He wouldn’t be the guy from Crawley who broke a guy’s arm in blind fury. He was the gonna be the guy who battled a giant and slew it. That wasn’t something he could find in Evie’s school teaching. Never.

“Eves, can we talk about this later?” They both knew that meant never. “I’m really tired, and I would like to sleep…”

“Who is this man you were with?” Evie’s voice was gentle. Jacob hated it. It always lulled him into spilling all the information she wanted. “Ned said something about a recruiter… Jacob is that true?”

Roth was a secret. His secret. He didn’t want Evie to ruin it. “It’s nothing,” he mumbled. He rolled away so his back was to her. “I want to sleep. Let me sleep, or you won’t get any information.”

Relief washed over the younger Frye when he heard Evie get up and leave the room. He had that going for him at least. His head was still pained, but it felt more dull now. His body was numbing a bit to the pain. That was good, he could sleep now. And he did.

* * *

 

“Oh god, please don’t make me.”

“You need to be watched while you’re like this!”

Jacob sat at the small desk in the corner. It was a little area with mats all over the floor, scattered around for groups. Papers sat on the desk, a few bills. Jacob kept an ice pack on his face to help numb some of the pain. Evie was in her sweats and a hoodie, people piling into the room from the door. Some were adults. Some children. Parents went and sat in a little lounge to the side as they gathered in little clumps. Most of the adults Jacob recognized on the streets. Various prostitutes who came to learn self defense. He glanced at his sister. If she thought anything of those women, she didn’t show it. And Jacob appreciated that. His people were those people on the streets. He wanted to make sure those people felt protected. Felt safe. And if Evie was the one doing that? He felt confident in them. Besides, he was more of a hire. Back in Crawley, sometimes he could be found at a brothel. But only with his brass knuckles waiting for the guy who hurt the poor lady.

“I want to keep an eye on you,” Evie gave the students a smile and looked over at him. “And maybe get a chance to see what it is that I’m trying to get you to help me with.”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Jacob said, his voice laced with sarcasm. “I trust them all in your capable hands, Miss Frye. They don’t need my grubby hands on their learning.”

Evie looked over at him. “.... What does that even mean.”

Jacob gave her a grin, then gestured for Evie to focus on her class with a wave of his hand. Evie rolled her eyes and turned away from him and began to address the students, reviewing some things from the previous week. Jacob saw that the children were learning how to get out of hair-pulling. The adults were learning how to make anything a weapon. “Charming.” Jacob quickly lost interest and pulled out his phone and began to scroll through different medias, uninterested in the teaching taking place before him. That was Evie’s thing. Not his.

A message appeared in his inbox. Roth. Jacob raised his brows in surprise. Glancing up, he saw that Evie had completely invested herself in teaching. She first went to speak with the children, showing them different things with her own hair and visual examples. Jacob knew she wouldn’t even notice him texting his new “boss”.

_ Please tell me you didn’t skip that damn physical. _

Jacob smirked.  _ R u worried Roth? _

He hadn’t had much contact with the man, but things hadn’t been formal for too long between them. After only a few weeks, Jacob felt connected to him. They related on so much, understood each other. Things that were instinct for Jacob, they were for Roth, too. They saw things eye to eye, and Jacob found himself thinking more and more of Roth in daily situations. Things like  “wow Roth would hate that”, “I should send a pic to Roth of that he’d laugh”. It was strange how fast of friends they became.

_ You wish you brat _

Roth would go from calling him brat to darling in an instant. Jacob grinned, head ducking so that Evie wouldn’t see him smiling.  _ I went 2 the docs and got meds. Thx 4 covering this shit.  _ He really did mean it. Keeping things a secret from Evie was difficult, but when someone else was covering it, things were easier. Evie thought Jacob had scheduled it all and gotten the meds. She had no idea who was helping Jacob sneak around like that.

_ As long as you’re ready to train soon. We need to get started, darling _

_ We didn’t already? _

_ Is it too challenging for you, my dear? _

Jacob didn’t like how good Roth was at comebacks.

_ Jus give me time man _

_ You’re lucky you’re such a prize _

Jacob’s chest filled with pride. He was something special, Roth would tell him. He was gonna be great at this, and fight and win and fight and win and over and over again keep climbing up to the top. That was exactly how he wanted it, too. Climbing the ranks, Roth at his side and helping him. He could hardly wait for training to begin.

“Jacob, can you please focus?”

Looking up, Evie was annoyed and watching him. He tucked his phone away, sad that he was finally caught. He was supposed to be watching what she did and think about that over fighting. Even though he was thinking about how great fighting was, and how wonderful training would be. It was infuriating how long Jacob had to wait from such damage he received to actually get into major training with Roth. Maxwell Roth, who had already memorized his fighting style. Maxwell Roth, who wouldn’t try to relearn Jacob in “proper fighting” like Evie would, but would expand upon his raw talent and harness it into something even better. Maxwell Roth, who saw Jacob’s atypical fighting as a gift, not a weakness.

Maxwell Roth.

The name felt good on Jacob’s tongue.


	8. Framework

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ................................... I had a lot of fun writing this.

Maxwell Roth never had a staring problem. He could have looks of intimidation, hold someone’s gaze for as long as he wanted. When he was in the conversation - hell, when he was in the room - he commanded the direction they moved, the places they looked, the tone, everything. He had a way of getting people to do what he wanted, how he wanted. If he wanted someone to stand somewhere, they would. If he was waiting for a word, it would touch theirs lips with little hesitation. Maxwell Roth was never captivated, never dragged around, never fooled, used, manipulated. Nobody could ever do that to him.

Maxwell Roth.

Did not.

Stare.

He simply “observed” the young Frye closely. Nobody had such raw potential, pure strength, nobody was quite like that. There was nobody in Roth’s world that resembled Jacob, and he wanted to pay extra close attention to the boy. So it wasn’t that he was staring at Jacob’s arms as they pulled and pushed the weights, his legs as they ran, his chest heaving and sweating as he was working on building up his strength after quite some time taking a break.

No, he was simply observing. Taking mental notes. On Jacob’s form.

Not that kind of form.

His…

Roth shook his head and blew out a sigh, running a hand through his hair and looking down at some papers. He had some notes and schedules for his other trainees, as well as some pamphlets, ads, different fights and rings and places he was planning to throw Jacob in to keep the boy getting better, improving, working. Jacob was bench pressing well over what Roth figured the boy could do, always surprised by the young man. While he looked fit, he looked average or even a little small for most fighters. Yet there we was, pressing weights that Roth wasn’t sure even he could do. Lewis was spotting, looking bored. Roth’s eyes lingered on Jacob’s chest, rising and falling quickly, shining with sweat. The boy was still supposed to be taking it easy, he wasn’t fully recovered, but enough to get back into basic exercise. Roth wasn’t sure if Jacob knew what “basic” meant.

“You might want to take a little break there, darling,” Roth called. He looked through a little ad for some fights. It wasn’t quite the lowest rank of fighting - those were Robert Topping fights - but it was something to get Jacob’s name more prominent in the community. There were already whispers of Roth’s little bird, but Roth needed people to start talking. Talking eventually got up to Starrick. Usually Roth could get the talking to shouting by the time Starrick caught wind of his newest fighter. Roth didn’t want to put Jacob in a higher up fighting ring if he wasn’t ready. So far the boy was good, but he wasn’t ready to be thrown right in like that. Working his way up worked better by step by step, not skipping steps whenever he saw fit.

“Aw, that’s no fun!” Jacob put the weights back into resting position, sitting up and stretching his arms up above his head. Roth paused a moment to watch the muscles in Jacob’s back move. They were so precise, flawless… Roth looked down at his papers quick as Jacob turned, the slightest twitch of his mustache the only sign of satisfaction. But he wasn’t staring, no. The boy was beautiful, but this was training. Not some kind of eye-candy show.

Jacob was at his side almost instantly. He smelled of sweat, but also a sweet scent. Roth was surprised that Jacob’s natural musk was so pleasant to him, but he decided to not focus on the boy leaning on the wall and looking at him with that childish, stupid, bratty grin he always had.

“So, when’s my next fight then?”

“Speed.”

The confusion on Jacob’s face was priceless. “Speed?”

“I’m going to take a look at a few things, if that’s okay with you. First off, I wanna see how quick you really are on your feet.” Roth crossed his arms over his chest. “You’ll start here at the doors, then run to the Thames. Across it, back, I’ll time. This is a usual I’ve done, I want to see you run it.” The run was about three and a half kilometers altogether, one and three fourths to get across, one and three fourths to get back. Roth had already gotten a timer ready on his phone, waving it in front of Jacob’s face. “Maybe if you beat my estimated time, we can discuss your next fight.” This would prove if Jacob was sufficiently healed for another fight, as well. And get the boy out of the place, he was incredibly distracting. Not distracting. It was analysis. Just analysis.

It wasn’t hard to get Jacob to accept the challenge. All Roth had to do when he explained to Jacob what he did was add a little “of course, if you don’t think you can do it” and Jacob was off running. The doors were practically broken off the Alhambra for Jacob to get out in a sprint. Roth figured it would take about twenty minutes with Jacob’s now minimal injuries. Ten and ten. If any less, no less than seventeen minutes. Roth clicked his timer the moment Jacob left the doors, and felt a moment of piece to work on scheduling fights. He went to his office to get some work done as he waited for the return of his little bird.

The calls were probably the easiest for Roth to do. He was good at sweet talking over the phone, it was simple to get that tone going, to sound so appealing and get the people on the other end to bend. He had the schedules of his fighters, finding good places for them to fight and get some cash. None of these men had a huge chance to make it very far in life - many of them just wanted to be where they were currently at, but were incapable of scheduling it themselves. Roth had standards, but he also had a hard time brushing someone off who was more than a little willing to pay him for his work. Starrick was his most important client, and sure, while everyone knew Roth’s best boys always ended up under Starrick, there were no official contracts, everything under the table from start to finish. It looked more like Roth was doing a favor than anything, but Roth wasn’t going to mention the money being dumped into his accounts almost weekly.

“Thank you for being so open with my boy’s busy schedule,” Roth had his phone on speaker, leaning over some notes. He managed to get two fighters into one set, Roth’s Tuesday night now full from having to watch the two compete and get his cut of their winnings. They weren’t really anyone special. The first had been a possible chance to make it big, but he fell short with compulsive habits of alcohol. There wasn’t much to be had from a drunkard besides some amusement in a local ring. The other hadn’t been too special, but was so determined to be trained by Roth had pestered the man for days until he agreed simply to get him to shut up.

As he was preparing to call the next fighting ring, a hand snatched his phone. “Hey, what do you think you’re-”

Roth stared in surprise as Jacob stopped his timer, grinning like a child. He was sweating like mad, but he was absolutely beaming. “Back!”

Roth’s eyes glanced down at the young man’s bare chest, the curve of his hips down into his sweats. He was very fit, but smooth. Not too toned in his stomach, more flat. Which was strange, considering how he could lift heavy objects, he worked so hard and pushed his body. He Had a nice curve to his hip, he wasn’t just a straight line. His silhouette was framed nice, outlined very shapely. Chest well defined, strong,  _ gorgeous _ -

Roth coughed and quickly took his phone. He mostly just snatched it from the beaming boy and looked down at the time.

His mustache twitched.

Fifteen minutes, forty-three seconds.

“So, do I get my next fight?” Jacob leaned on Roth’s desk and Roth was attempting to not stare. He doesn’t stare, anyway, he observes. That was already covered. Jacob’s waist was shifted in a nice way, Roth couldn’t help but notice how well defined his lower half was even in those sweats…

“Fine, fine,” Roth said. He looked down at his papers and sighed. “I’ll figure something out for you. We’re going to see how you use that speed in terms of agility, however, darling. You’re fast but you need to show you’re light on your feet.”

Standing, Roth nudged Jacob out of his office. His hand, gloved, touched Jacob’s back. Even through the leather he could feel the tension, the strength, in those muscles. Fascinating.

The ring in the center of the stage was ready with a fighter. One of Roth’s own, someone he trained for years. It was time to see if Jacob was any good. “Well, let me direct you. Teach you, since you’re here for that.”

Even though Jacob had been exercising for over an hour, just ran two miles, he looked excited and hopped into the ring with ease. Roth was completely baffled. Where was this brat getting all this energy from? “You’re going to work on dodging attacks, countering. I want to see it, and correct some things. Got it?”

Jacob’s smile was too bright. Too lovely.

Roth watched Jacob get into that stance of his. Knees slightly bent, his feet digging in to resist blows, yet somehow he managed to keep light and shift from one to the other. His hands raised in a defensive position. Roth’s boy saw this and got into his own stance, the one Roth had taught him many years ago. It had since become instinct.

The orders came instantly when the man swung at Jacob.

“Don’t meet his blows you brat!”

Jacob didn’t even lean or duck or move away. He raised an arm to block it, but foolishly. Jacob took a few steps back, obviously surprised by Roth’s barks. “It’s fine though!”

“If he hits that arm enough he can break it, you use your arms to block only if you must,” Roth leaned on the ring. “You want to do something like that? You leaned your torso away, arm up. Lean more, arm up to your face a little more, don’t extend it, keep it tucked. Again.”

The orders were obviously strange for Jacob. The first two instances he repeated his mistake. The man swung, Jacob raised his arm, and it began to show that it was a little painful when the spot turned a dark red and he winced. When Roth’s thug rounded again, Jacob’s eyes seemed alert, and his head and torso tipped back. The fist just passed his nose, and Jacob stared in amazement.

“Now do what your gut tells you, little bird,” Roth commanded.

Jacob’s hands flew up and snatched the man’s arm. Roth saw the foe’s eyes get wide as Jacob’s body lowered, grip getting tight and dragging the man over his shoulder and flipping him onto the ground. The move was flawless, Jacob’s strength enough to throw the man to the floor. Jacob also had the instinct correct to kick his foot down hard on the man’s chest, then he seemed to float away to a safe distance. Roth nodded in approval when Jacob looked to him, and that happy, joyful look replaced Jacob’s harsh, focused expression.

They allowed the man some time to get back up and collect himself before they continued. “If he’s too close, get at his legs and try to stop him from overtaking you.” Roth made sure Jacob stayed still until his opponent was in close quarters. “You need to make sure you’re not stuck between him and the ring, and that you’re not in any close up fighting that isn’t to your advantage. Inside of the legs, put as much force into it as you can.”

Jacob’s initial instinct, however, was to reach up through the man’s guard, and before anything could be done, dragging the man’s face down into his knee. A sickening crack filled the room and the man cried out, curling up on the floor and covering his face as blood spurted from his nose. Jacob looked up at Roth, a little worried. Roth waved his hand and watched Jacob relax. “Lewis, get this one out of the ring and find someone else,” Roth ordered. When Lewis began to help the bleeding man, Roth turned his attention to Jacob. “Good tactic, but it didn’t work on that big guy who almost knocked you into your grave.” He felt more than a little satisfied by Jacob’s wilted expression. “You want to do a good job, my dear? Incapacitate one leg, knock him in an ear or shoulder, get him slumped just enough to slow down and you can get out of the way.”

Another boy Roth was training came into the ring, and by the look on his face, he saw what Jacob had done to the last guy. Jacob didn’t seem to notice, just got into his position as the boy approached. Roth watched intently, the muscles of Jacob’s arms. The tone of his back. His chest, nice and framed and that little bird tattoo so lovely. His eyes set, his mouth thin, hands raised. A fighter. And goddamn beautiful.

Maxwell Roth doesn’t observe.

He stares.


	9. Snooping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I actually managed to do two chapters. Hope you like that!

“Max…”

The name had slipped out of Jacob’s mouth as he slept. The curtains were pulled over the window, any possible light from street lamps blocked off, the blankets tangled around his legs. He wore some shorts, no shirt, drooling onto the pillow his arm was tucked under. The only source of light in the room was the little lamp Evie turned on as she was collecting Jacob’s dirty clothes to wash. She had been cleaning his room quietly as he slept. Evie never spoke with Jacob about it, but she knew his sleeping habits were horrible. Waking up in the night from constant nightmares, he was almost screaming. He would sit up, look around. Once Evie found him wandering the apartment looking confused. He had no idea the next morning anything happened at all.

Evie knew this because she had these problems, too.

Her brother had always managed to calm his nerves at about three in the morning. Seeing Jacob calm down seemed to always calm her down, and she would sleep soundly. Growing up with his terrors, it was natural she gained sleepless nights naturally. Normally she woke up from her own nightmares, haunting things, and read a book for a while. Once, back in Crawley, she had woken up in the living room and had a finished plate of food in front of her. She had thought she had slept decent that night.

Jacob’s sleeping in was always a sign that he was doing good. If he was up before ten something was wrong or he couldn’t sleep at all. His habits were extremely backwards, even more so than Evie’s. So she usually went into his room, cleaned up around him, and kissed his forehead and let him rest.

But he muttered something just now, a name, in his sleep.

Evie heard it clearly. She knew she wasn’t making it up. Max.

The room was quiet, Evie waiting to see if Jacob said anything more, but Jacob just rolled and Evie had to run over to stop him from rolling off the bed. She tucked him in carefully, though she didn’t try very hard to untangle the blankets from around him. Once a mess, always a mess. All of his dirty clothes were put in a little basket, and Evie was ready to go and do laundry. But before she left the apartment, she set her laptop on top of the pile of clothes and brought it with her to the laundry room.

Evie was always the first one to take advantage of the laundry room. It opened at five in the morning on the dot and Evie was sometimes even waiting in the hallway to get started. She dumped all her laundry in, got it started, before taking a seat at some tiny tables they had for waiting. They never liked people to leave their laundry unattended, and Evie wasn’t about to break such an easy rule.

“Max.”

Why her brother was saying that name in his sleep, she wasn’t sure. She didn’t really know if she wanted to know. But the only thing she did know is this Max had to be involved in fighting. Jacob was either at home, out with Ned or out at the ring. He always managed to keep her confused about when he was going out to fight. Fights were at night but he would leave at eleven in the morning some days. This wasn’t usual. Jacob didn’t have a trainer. Jacob didn’t go to gyms. Jacob always went on runs or had street fights to practice, but he hadn’t been getting into any of those. It was strange, she couldn’t figure out what he was doing.

Finding the different London fight clubs was easy enough. Evie knew they all had the same tricks to hide online. She got five different tabs up within a few minutes of various clubs, as well a list on a few of them of popular fighters. She even pulled up an inventory of different well known fighting franchise masters. People who fought, who run fights, who trained, the entire works. People were always keeping tabs on other people, and Evie knew how to use those and exploit them. She had done her own fighting for a few years before she knew she could do better for herself. It hadn’t been until she saw how bad Jacob had gotten that she realized how unhealthy the habit really was. Teaching self defense had cleared her bloodlust, had drained her desire to hurt. Jacob wasn’t there yet, even though Evie tried so hard to guide him there. He just wasn’t ready yet.

Evie got through the first two fight clubs easily. They weren’t very good, nobody matching Max. There had been a Max but by his information, Evie was able to assess that he wouldn’t be the one Jacob would be muttering about in his sleep. Closing tab after tab, Evie found herself staring at her brother’s picture on one of the fight club lists. Jacob Frye was ranked the highest in a set of fights a Topping’s. His grinning photo, Evie remembered when he took that photo. Her heart felt a sting and she looked to see if he had any other fights scheduled with Topping’s. He didn’t. That was good at least.

No Max’s to be seen. The lists of fighters didn’t help much either. Max wasn’t totally uncommon there, but none of them had info or match times that seemed to align with what she knew about Jacob’s London fighting. Fighter after fighter after fighter crossed off the list. Evie felt a little frustrated with this. Closing from that tab, the only one left was that list of different professionals related to the clubs. The filter of profession would help quite a bit, but it was completely beyond Evie what this Max did.

Except…

Ned was always awake, Evie wondered whenever he slept. She could call at odd hours of the night and he would always answer. Five in the morning was no different, though he did sound a little tired. “What is it, Frye?”

“Did I wake you up?” Evie may have something to do but she would be damned if she couldn’t be polite.

“No, no, it’s fine.” Ned sighed on the other end. “So, what do you need?”

“You said something about Jacob going to a fight with a man. Do you know who it is?” she asked. She searched “Max” and began to look through, mentally crossing off people as she scrolled down. “Was he a fighter? What was his profession?”

“What, are you trying to profile the guy?” Ned laughed. His laugh was light and sweet. “No, no, he’s not a fighter. He’s a recruiter and trainer.” Just as he finished the sentence, Evie was adjusting the filters for the list. It narrowed extremely. Only one man was on the list, no picture, just basic information. “His name is Roth.”

“Maxwell Roth.”

“Maxw-” Ned stopped. “Yeah how did you know?”

“Thank you, Ned, I owe you. Bye.” Evie hung up before Ned could speak. She began to search information about Maxwell Roth, only to find it was minimal. She did find an address, a phone number, though she could tell it was a business line. She couldn’t call a business line, if she said anything about who she was the man would probably reject speaking with her, and she hated trying to make a guise. Jacob was more adapted to that, able to come up with detailed lies on the fly. It annoyed her to no end how good he was at lying, though she knew his tactics well enough.

It was a forum that got her the information she needed. It was a section of fighters looking for trainers. She had to dig a ways down into the search results to find it. A post asking about various trainers. Many names came up, but then a post from only a few days ago was near the bottom. Roth’s name was mentioned earlier, but this person focused on it.

_ Roth’s pretty good but don’t expect much from him right now. Got this new kid under his wing who is taking all the attention, no chances of making it big with him so long as this Frye guy is there. Kid’s a monster, breaks noses and arms and shit. If you wanna train maybe avoid Alhambra until Frye is gone. Think Roth has a thing for him, I keep seeing him checking Frye out, too. It’s just a little awkward there right now. Might find a new trainer, I don’t like being Frye’s dummy. _

Evie wanted to punch her computer. Jacob was training! With this man! And it seemed as though the two had become a duo, Evie felt anger in her stomach as she reread. “Checking him out? Checking out my brother?” She felt angry. Yes, Jacob deserved attention from someone who was interested in him, but a guy like Roth? Someone in the fighting business? It was awful! Hand running through her hair, she sighed. “Jacob, what are you doing…?”

Would she bring this up with Jacob? How could she? He would just get defensive and brush her off. It was so infuriating when he did that.

It only came to her mind to open up some of the fight club websites after she put the laundry into the dryer a while later. She typed Roth’s name in, and every single one had a result. Different rosters, potential fighters. Evie looked through the minimal information, ruling out each. Until her eyes settled on “Little Bird.” She stared at that title, Roth’s name above it. He had registered Jacob to fight. Only he was little bird. The tattoo he had was a signal enough to Evie that it had to be him. He had a fight scheduled in a week’s time.

“... Looks like you’ll have a fan in the crowd, Jacob. And not a happy one.”

Evie closed her laptop, went to get the dried laundry, and went back to their apartment. When she got inside, Jacob was awake and getting breakfast. He looked up at her and waved. There was a frown on his face when he saw her laptop on top the pile, and gave her a look, one asking what she had taken it with her for.

He didn’t need to know. After all, Jacob was keeping secrets.

Evie would just do the same.


	10. Rough Touch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was really wild to write I'm sorry if it's a little awkward it took me a few days and it feels a little wonky but right now it's the best I can do
> 
> Okay thank you
> 
> I hope it good

Jacob couldn’t remember the last time he had been in a tier fight. Normally he would just climb into a ring, beat the shit out of as many people as he could, then hop out and collect his money. But Roth insisted that in order to get more popular he needed to do more professional looking fighting and make a name for himself that way. Their current ring was a little bit nicer than Topping’s, though it was still a little under the radar. Some more middle class folks were in the crowd though, something Jacob noticed when they had arrived. Roth told him some names in the fighting business would show up here - people who spread word of up-and-coming fighters. Roth wanted to get Jacob’s name in people’s mouths, so it probably was one of the best ways to go about gaining popularity.

When they arrived, Jacob’s name was already arranged on a list. Jacob had been picked up by Roth. Evie had been out running errands, so he left a little note on the counter saying he was going to be spending time with Ned. Even though she had an idea of what he was up to, Jacob couldn’t bring himself to say anything to her further about it. She knew he had done one fight, maybe two. He just had to pretend he stopped and her guard would drop, easy. 

Roth guided Jacob to some seats, letting him take a seat and leaning on the back of his chair. “Remember all the stuff I’ve taught you, my dear,” Roth muttered to him, “I don’t want to have to carry you out on a stretcher, you hear?” Jacob gave him a nod and Roth seemed to relax, looking down at his fighter with intense eyes. They had quite a bit of time to wait, as there were two rings and sixteen fighters in the first round. Jacob had a little number eight, though he would be in the fourth total fight of the first round. Numbers one and two were getting ready in one ring, three and four in the other. Roth patted his arm and muttered something about getting himself a drink before he walked away, leaving Jacob alone to watch for a little while by himself.

Since Jacob had begun to train with Roth, he began to notice things more and more about each man in the ring. Normally he didn’t care who he was facing, just if he could take them down or not, but Roth’s barking at him caused him to notice the types of things that Roth was looking for. Number one was a pretty scrawny man, but he seemed to know what he was doing. He used that little form of his to get around number two, but it didn’t seem to help very much in the long run. Number one wasn’t very good on his feet, pretty loud, and easy to follow along. He had a predictable step, someone who memorized the steps and never left them. The basics were his only talent. He also left one whole side open, which number two seemed to notice. Number two was bigger built, better guarded. Better fighter. Better everything. Jacob would be surprised if he lost the fight.

Numbers three and four were more fair game. They were equals in height and weight, and one kept his stomach too open while the other kept his face too open. They could land blows on each other pretty easy, and yet both had managed to keep themselves up on their toes, taking hit after hit and barely faltering. Whichever of them would make it out would prove to be a challenge for number two in the next round, and Jacob shrugged it off and began to look for Roth instead.

His trainer couldn’t be spotted anywhere among the shuffling people, the foot stands, the betting tables. Jacob was a little frustrated at how well the man blended in. Even though he had wild hair that was difficult to keep down, wore some fancier clothes than the rest of these people, Roth still knew how to act subtle enough to blend in. Jacob was never too good at any of that. He always liked to be the center of attention and command it as much as he could. Roth was similar, but managed to keep it more subtle. Jacob had recognized it right away, though he didn’t let it in on Roth that he knew his tricks. It was similar to Evie’s way of command. Roth knew how to control a room without drawing attention to himself.

Roth eventually appeared into Jacob’s sight, but only by the time the man had gotten back to him. He had a drink in his hand and a bored look on his face, looking around at the rings and sighing. “These are going to be too easy for you,” he muttered. “All of them. Piece of cake. What about your number seven?”

Jacob shrugged and began to look around at some of the other fighters sitting. Some were stretching or preparing for their own fights, but Jacob wanted his body to relax before getting into the ring. He always had trouble with getting into that relaxing groove he needed to fight, so kicking back in a chair was perfect. “I haven’t seen ‘im. Maybe he’s a no show?”

With a little nudge and a point of his finger, Roth directed Jacob to a man sitting not too far away. Jacob almost missed the little seven looped around his wrist, dangling there from its lanyard. “This one will be simple enough for you, little bird.”

Jacob didn’t want his adrenaline rushing while he was waiting to fight, and he gave Roth a look as he said that nickname. It was a term of endearment Roth used that always got him going, and he didn’t want that outside of the ring. Roth just gave him a little smirk and Jacob looked away, and he felt warmth in his cheeks. Even now, after training a little while with Roth, any contact with him, any grins or smirks or smiles, all of it burned Jacob. He didn’t feel like a whole person anymore - more like a charred black corpse that Roth knew how to keep alive enough. He felt completely burnt. But it felt good.

“I think I can take him,” Jacob said with a little nod. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked back to the rings. Three and four were still fighting it out, but as Jacob predicted, two was climbing out of the ring unscatched and number one was being dragged away unconscious. Five and six were getting ready. Six was a big guy, but after the colossal beast Jacob had to fight some time before, the bird felt no worries about it. Five could barely catch his attention, this fight would be over and done with soon enough and Jacob would be finding himself going after six.

Three was the one to win the ring Jacob was going to enter, and as he climbed out and the other man was helped, Jacob stood and gave Roth a grin. “This should be pretty easy,” he said. “You wish me luck?” Roth gave him an unimpressed stare. “Okay, how about a goodbye kis-”

Jacob laughed as Roth shoved his face, and he turned and hopped into the ring with ease. Seven stood across from him, talking to someone leaning on the ring, and nodding a little. Jacob smirked and waited with patience as they spoke. When Seven turned to him, Jacob waved a little. “Hey, just wanted to be friendly before I kicked your ass,” he said, his voice light and happy. Seven didn’t seemed very amused by his gesture and cracked his neck, shifting into a fighting stance. Jacob pouted. “Well, if you want to be like that, then I won’t go easy on you, I guess.”

When the match started, Jacob didn’t move. As he shuffled around with seven across from him, Jacob didn’t plan on looking for an opening. No, he had been working hard on his blocking, his dodging, and using his different fighting to his advantage. He wanted to be able to show Roth he learned, it was still in him, and he could use it.

He was going to impress Roth even if it meant looking like a fool before.

Seven didn’t seem to notice Jacob’s intentions, for he was looking for any possible opening on Jacob and looking annoyed and his whole body wrought with hesitation. Jacob wanted the man to try to land a blow on him, and he felt a little devilish when he let his arm shift a little to expose a bit of his side. He heard a noise behind him, a little breath. Roth. He was annoyed, he saw that movement just as Jacob made it. He wasn’t happy. But Jacob knew he could impress Roth. He wanted that more than winning.

Thankfully, Roth wasn’t the only one to notice this shift in Jacob’s stance. Seven took a step forward in an instant, his arm hooking out with the goal of hitting Jacob. It would have been a good hit if Jacob hadn’t been focused on his training. Jacob’s body followed the fist, shifting and bending out of its reach. Seven looked surprised, and Jacob wanted to turn and look to Roth for approval. He almost did, but managed to keep that desire down as his fist reached and connected with Seven’s gut. The man reeled and stepped back, but Jacob had him doubled over enough to bring his arm down on the man’s back and neck and toppling him. He remembered his steps, moving back quickly to create distance between Seven and himself. That was when he took a moment to look at Roth. The man’s expression was blank, but the fire in Roth’s eyes seemed to light up. Jacob felt its heat on his face, his cheek, then--

Jacob began to feel warm as the heat dragged down his neck, slowly. Slipping along his collarbone. His chest… Lingering on his chest for a while. Dipping down to his waist, the curve of his hip. Jacob felt hot all over, trails of burns on his skin. His trainer’s eyes rose up to meet his, and Jacob looked away quickly. His throat felt dry suddenly. He felt light headed. His body was humming with energy. As he turned back to Seven, who was getting back up on his feet, he felt a wave of heat on his back that made him want to scratch and move away. But also to get closer. To let it burn. Let it engulf him.

Jacob didn’t want to waste much time on Seven anymore. Roth’s heat behind him, that was enough for Jacob to know he did something to please his trainer, so Jacob went after Seven. He knew Roth liked when Jacob didn’t hold back, so he didn’t plan to. Seven looked frightened when Jacob ran to him, raising his hands up to his face quickly. Jacob’s foot lashed out mid step, and it hit the inside of Seven’s knee. His leg shifted, and the man let out a cry of surprise and fell to his knees. Jacob’s arm slid back into position, and like a gun being fired, his fist shot out and his Seven right in the jaw. The sound of bone cracking, the feel of it on his knuckles, Jacob felt satisfied as Seven went down.

He didn’t expect Seven to stay down though. The fight was over quickly, and Roth had to reach in and pull Jacob’s arm to get him to move. People climbed into the ring to get Seven out, the man holding his jaw and lying on the ground weak. Jacob didn’t realize how much strength he used, and was a little disappointed that he finished the man off so quickly. When he got out of the ring, though, he felt a swell of pride when Roth’s arm went around his shoulders and clasped him with praise. Roth said something, but Jacob could barely process it. He noticed, too, that many of the fighters were staring at him, at Jacob, the guy from Crawley that decked his opponent with ease.

The heat of Roth around him, the fear of those before him, Jacob grinned.

He was going to win.

* * *

 

The first round ended with Two, Three, Six, Jacob, Nine, Eleven, Fourteen and Fifteen moving on. In round two, Three won, then Jacob, Eleven and Fourteen. When the semifinals came, Jacob found himself against Three, but was able to take him down with little issue. By this point, people began to notice Jacob, and were more invested in his fights. Bets were being placed on him, and Jacob saw Roth getting more and more money as a result of his successful fighting. The fighter had found ways to keep the fights going, which seemed to make it more entertaining for the watchers. Jacob would hit light, annoy his opponent into an unfocused rage before taking them out. Having someone swinging wildly at your favorite fighter seemed to bring money in.

When Three went down, Eleven came out on top. He was a rugged guy, tall and lean and dangerous. Jacob figured the guy had been fighting for some time. Still, if he was fighting for years and wasn’t making any moves to climb higher like Jacob was, it was likely that Jacob wouldn’t find Eleven to be difficult.

The first half of the fight took Jacob a little while. People were loud, and cheering them both on. The crowd seemed pretty split on who they wanted to win, and something about that made Jacob feel good. He was going to pull those fans of Eleven’s over to his side with ease.

“Sorry, but only one person can win this,” Jacob said, giving Eleven a smile. Eleven just stared back. “I can buy you a drink well after if you’d like? My winnings should get me quite a bit, I could even buy you three.” 

Eleven looked Jacob over and raised a brow. “Who let a child into the ring?”

Jacob stared at him.

Eleven stared back, and the smallest smirk took his lips.

Jacob grinned.

“You made a mistake.”

Eleven was good at getting out of the way of Jacob’s punches, but Jacob could get around Eleven’s own fists with little effort. They were close up, in a way Jacob wasn’t used to. Knuckles and teeth and nails, feel shuffling, and bruises forming on Jacob’s skin. Eleven got a good punch to the ribs, Jacob losing his breath and kicking out at Eleven’s knees. He missed, but it managed to get Eleven to shuffle back and cause distance. Jacob was thankful that it worked as well as it did.

Speed was an advantage that Jacob knew he definitely had, as well as his gut instinct. He and Eleven shuffled around a bit, and Jacob felt his gut telling him to fake left. When he obeyed, he saw Eleven begin to follow in a guard, and Jacob’s feet shifted and he sprinted around to the right, catching Eleven by surprise. Jacob’s hand connected with Eleven’s ear, and the battle was won from there. Quick hits, with all of Jacob’s strength, and Eleven was down. Everyone was cheering like wild, and Jacob saw Roth nodding in approval. Jacob turned to give him a smile…

Evie’s green eyes caught his and he froze.

Everything slowed down. Evie was Just behind a few people, staring at him with a hard, enraged gaze. Jacob’s jaw slackened, eyes wide. He was caught. He was found out. She was. Right. There. This wasn’t a trick of the light. That was Evie.

That was why Jacob bolted.

He jumped the ring’s edge quick and snatched his bag. Roth was still at the edge of the ring, now collecting money. Jacob collected him instead, dragging him away.

“What the hell!”

Roth’s hand in his, Jacob pulled him along and pushed through the crowd. “We can come back for it!” Jacob replied. “We need to leave! Now!”

“You brat, let go!” Roth was obviously confused by the whole situation, because he wasn’t putting up much of a fight. Jacob already knew that Roth didn’t tolerate what he didn’t like unless he was confused enough or curious to know more. “Dammit, if you don’t let go I will sever your hand from your goddamn body!”

“I don’t doubt you,” Jacob looked back and saw Roth’s anger and frustration all over his face. Behind Roth, he saw Evie trying to get through the crowd, thankful to see she was failing. He pulled Roth outside, keeping a grip on his wrist. “Where’s your car?” Jacob asked quick. “We need to leave, we need to leave. I cannot be caught, I can’t!”

Roth raised a brow. “Wait, caught?” He took a moment to think. “... Your sister was-”

“Yes, yes, she was!”

Roth stared at him, and then began to laugh. “That’s what this is all about, darling?” he said. He shook his head, unable to contain his laughter. “I suppose you’ll have to come home with me, then.” Jacob let out a cry when Roth twisted Jacob’s arm to get out of his grip, and found Roth grabbing his wrist instead and dragging him now. “We’ll leave. I can’t let my best fighter get caught, we both need this opportunity!” He sounded a little annoyed now. “It’s ridiculous to have a fighter who has this problem, though, you brat, let me tell you.”

Jacob didn’t reply, just followed Roth until they reached his car. He got into the passenger’s seat and huddled up against the window, looking out. As they drove, he saw Evie appear outside the door to the fighting ring and he felt his breathing catch. He stared until he couldn’t see her anymore. They sat in silence, Jacob feeling sick to his stomach, Roth driving them back, and buzzing came from Jacob’s dufflebag. His phone. Jacob squirmed and looked at his bag and shook his head. “... I can’t.”

Roth rolled his eyes. “It’ll be fine,” he said. “You can stay with me until she calms down enough for you to feel ‘safe’.” He sounded sarcastic, and even a little annoyed again. Jacob’s stomach twisted. He just won. He did, he beat everyone he faced! Roth sounded angry with him. But he did everything right, he just wanted to avoid Evie’s yelling and anger. He didn’t want to be separated from Roth. Didn’t Roth want that, too? Jacob hesitated. He enjoyed Roth’s company, approval, training. He liked when he won something and Roth showed he enjoyed Jacob winning. Right now he got none of that. Was this all one-sided?

Jacob’s heart sped up.

Was the praise fake?

Jacob didn’t realize he was outwardly showing this until he realized Roth was trying to speak to him. “Darling, what… Why are you breathing like that?” Jacob listened to his breath. It was light and quick and he began to feel dizzy from it. His body shook, and he looked at Roth. Roth looked back and total surprise overcame Roth’s expression.

“I….” Jacob couldn’t think of anything to say. He felt nervous, felt scared. If Evie would get upset with him. If Roth thought he was just a toy. He wasn’t. He wasn’t.

Father was wrong, he was more than just a fool.

Roth tried to drive a few more minutes, but ended up parking the car and looking over to Jacob. He was obviously not versed in comfort, watching Jacob with a panic in his eyes that Jacob had never seen before. It was obvious he was trying to problem solve what to do, Jacob’s vision getting blurry as his breathing continued to get out of control and his shaking more intense. Jacob’s head was swimming with fearful thoughts, lungs moving at an uneven speed, everything out of focus.

That’s when Jacob felt heat on his head. Roth’s burning hands, ungloved, in his hair. Jacob stared at Roth, who was obviously confused and frustrated with the situation. Jacob felt Roth’s gentle pets, fingers running through Jacob’s messy hair, untangling and rubbing the top of his head.

It was like his body froze. Jacob was aware of his breath slowing, his body slackening, and he leaned against the seat and was no longer shaking. He closed his eyes, trying to take deep, slow breaths, feeling Roth’s fingers combing him, comforting him. Roth wasn’t the kind of guy to be good with his words, Jacob figured that. This… It was nice.

Jacob wasn’t sure when he fell asleep, but as he dreamt, all he could feel was a burning hot fire and warm, loving hands brushing through his hair.


	11. 2nd Degree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is super short. I mean super short.
> 
> But there's a reason for that.
> 
> Trust me.
> 
> Uhuhuhuhuhuhuhuuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhhuhuuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuuhuhuhuhuu

Jacob woke up in his usual mess of blankets, tangled around in sheets with his face in the pillows. His body felt heavy, each muscle sore from tension and exhaustion. His eyes had difficulty opening right away, but he knew the room was relatively light and that it was quite some time in the day. His bed felt a little softer than usual - the mattress he owned was lumpy and rough from years of being used, but this one was soft, it felt fresh and new. As Jacob began to wake more, his brain processed more differences. The blankets were softer, smoother. The pillow so neat and unused.

This…

This wasn’t Jacob’s bed.

Eyes opening, Jacob sat up and looked around. He was in a nice room, light pouring in through a window whose blinds were halfway lowered. The bed was up against the wall opposite the door, a tall wardrobe to its right, a small desk to the left. There was also a closet on the wall, more space in case the wardrobe wasn’t enough. There was a tie and scarf rack, and cupboards and shelving likely for accessories. On the desk, Jacob saw leather gloves, and a small crow on a perch watching him with dark, curious eyes.

This was Roth’s room.

Jacob looked down at himself, at first worried why he wasn’t wearing a shirt, but he quickly realized it was because he was still in his shorts for fighting. He hadn’t put a shirt back on last night, when Roth offered to let him stay over until Evie calmed down. There were bruises on his skin, but they didn’t hurt much. There was no lasting damage from the fights, which Jacob was thankful for. He managed to untangle himself from the blankets and stood, arms stretching above his head, before going to leave the room.

As his hand reached for the door knob, it twisted, and Jacob quick took a step back as it opened. That bored, dull man… Lewis, his name was, Jacob remembered… looked back at him. The man looked hardly impressed. “I was to check on you, Master Frye,” he said. “Master Roth has some clothes for you, just in your size. And he said before you worry about how he knew, you had spare clothes in your duffel bag he was going to wash.” Jacob was handed jeans, a plain gray shirt, and a hoodie. “Master Roth is making himself some lunch if you would care to join him.”

The clothes were fresh bought, never worn. Jacob wouldn’t have had time to go pick up some clothes from home, not with the risk of Evie catching him, so he was grateful that Roth had taken the time to get him some fresh clothes. He also thought they looked rather nice. Roth removed the price tags, but Jacob could tell right away that these were not the type of clothes he could afford. When he got changed, he left that bedroom, forgetting the common courtesy of making the bed.

Outside the bedroom, Jacob was surprised to find himself in the Alhambra. At first he didn’t know it was that big theater, it was just a hallway with a staircase leading down. But as he went, the view of the theater caught his attention. Roth worked and lived here? Seemed like everything was located here for the man. A place of work, comfort, living. That sounded kind of relaxing.

It took a while for Jacob to find a way into some of the back rooms from his vantage point, but he found a door that lead to many of the hidden rooms of the theater. What had been makeup rooms, clothing rooms, changing rooms, they were converted to storage, a few little offices. Jacob stumbled across the kitchen, Roth leaning on a counter with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. It was strange to see him in a… domestic setting. He was at the stove, various vegetables on one pan he was focusing on, and some meat cooking on the other. The smell hit Jacob’s nose and he was immediately drawn into the room, walking over and watching over Roth’s shoulder.

The elder seemed to know Jacob had entered the room, for he didn’t react or turn around. When Jacob was practically leaning on his back, Roth didn’t even flinch, he kept his eyes trained on the food and hummed a little. “You slept in pretty late,” Roth observed. “The brat needs his beauty nap, eh?”

Jacob let himself lean on Roth, chin resting on his shoulder. He could tell it agitated Roth a little, but that’s why he wanted to do it. He liked annoying his trainer in all the little ways. “I didn’t picture you as the cooking type,” he said. It was still a surprise to him to see Roth like this. He knew the guy had to eat, sure, but cooking seemed a little out of his character.

“What type do I seem when it comes to food, then?” Roth still didn’t look at him, he kept focused on his work.

“Well the ‘I don’t have time for this shit so someone else do it’ type.”

Roth tasted a bit of the food, shook his head, and reached into a cabinet for some different spices. “Why would I trust some idiot with my food?” he said. “It’s a complete waste of my time and someone else’s effort if I know I’m just going to hate it. I like things a little interesting but if I’m going to digest it I would rather live and not die from disgust.”

“Okay, but do I get some?” Jacob smiled bright and stood up straight. “Come on, Roth. I won those fights last night.”

“You also broke down sobbing in my car.”

“I was not sobbing.”

“.... You brat you fucking were!”

The two argued about whether or not Jacob’s little breakdown in the passenger’s seat included tears or not as Roth began to plate the food. He made one plate at first, and it took some coaxing from Jacob (insistent begging) to get Roth to make a second plate. “I should let you starve,” Roth said as Jacob took his food. The two leaned against the counters, standing and eating, and Jacob gave Roth a happy grin.

“You wouldn’t starve your star, would you?” Jacob said.

Roth looked Jacob over, raising a brow at him. “Just because you’re a winning prize doesn’t mean I have to baby you, brat,” he said. Jacob gave him a pout, but Roth ignored him from then on and continued to eat. Jacob watched him a bit before eating, focusing on his food now. It wasn’t the most amazing meal, just some cooked vegetables and some sausage. It could have been done better, but certainly much worse. Roth seemed content with it, and Jacob wasn’t opposed to Roth cooking for him. They ate in silence for a while, but then Jacob felt a tugging in his chest and he set his plate down.

“Roth, about what happened in the car-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Roth said. His voice was even and calm. But he still wasn’t looking at Jacob. When he was looking at Jacob, it was only for a few seconds before he would look away or look past him. Jacob could always feel when Roth’s gaze was on him - it was a fire on his skin every single time. Even though they were still new to each other, Jacob was very conscious that Roth was a little more tense than usual. He wasn’t sure if he should persist the topic.

But he didn’t like this tension between them. He couldn’t tell what it was, but it definitely only took place after the fight, after Jacob’s emotional distress. They still had many fights to get through, but Jacob was aware that there were people already spreading his name and reputation around. This was a fight that would be covered, one that Jacob knew would help him and Roth climb up from the dirt. Yet Roth wasn’t interested in celebrating an important victory. What was wrong?

“I want to talk about this, Roth.” Jacob sighed and shook his head. “Did I… Did I do something? Was last night and my sister really that bad? Look, I’m sorry for annoying you and being a bother and-”

Jacob’s lips caught fire when Roth grabbed him by the hoodie and kissed him.

The flame that was surrounding him, touching him gently, it completely engulfed Jacob. He felt flames down his throat, burning and searing his lungs. All the way into his stomach he felt smoke and heat and a rage and passion that swallowed him whole. Roth’s hands moving to get around his waist, Jacob felt like his skin was being burned off.

It was amazing.

Jacob didn’t even think. He kissed back, meeting Roth’s mouth with his own. He gasped when Roth pressed him up to the counter. Jacob felt heat from head to toe, and for a moment he was wondering why the fire alarms weren’t blaring. Roth’s bare hands found their way into Jacob’s hoodie, sliding up the back and touching Jacob’s bare skin. Jacob hissed, it felt like he was coming in contact with a branding rod. Roth’s mouth against his was definitely more experienced, and when one of Roth’s hands slid down to Jacob’s backside, he gasped and pulled away. “W-Wait…”

Roth was staring at him, that flame in his eyes. Jacob felt as though his own were melting from the harshness of the stare.

Then Roth let go and moved away, watching him. “Of course, darling.”

They stared at each other, breathing hard. Neither of them knew what just happened.

But they didn’t care as Jacob moved to Roth.

They kissed again.


	12. The Redemption Arc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope things are going the way you people like!!!!!! I know I am having fun

Whatever was between them, Jacob loved it. Being at the Alhambra had never been more exciting. Jacob found himself staying there for quite some time, avoiding going home as much as he could. When he knew Evie was at work, Roth sent some boys to get some of Jacob’s clothes and personal belongings while he camped out in Roth’s home.

Or in his bed, rather.

Jacob was still flustered by the whole matter. Things hadn’t escalated much, but definitely more than Jacob would have anticipated at all. Every single night Roth was over him, their mouths connected, hands exploring bare skin. Marks were appearing all over Jacob that had never been there before, all because of Roth’s amazing mouth. It was like something in a dream, one that Jacob never wanted to wake up from. They didn’t really discuss what it was between them, simply because neither of them felt the need to. Whatever it was… It was fun.

The two had carried on with training, but now even that was proving difficult. Roth would run up to Jacob while he was on a treadmill, drag him into a kiss, and tell him about fighting rings who were calling about Jacob and asking for him to come fight. Jacob would be lifting weights and feel a burning hot hand on his back, or his ass. Roth would pass with a smirk and look him over, and Jacob’s entire body was alight from the spark.

Roth managed to get Jacob in last minute into a fight. Jacob won with ease, and Roth had to stop the car on the way back to the Alhambra just to kiss Jacob for nearly an hour. Their lips would meet and it was like hell blazed, hands grasped desperately for something to cling to. Jacob had never felt this good.

During all of this, texts and calls from Evie were scarce. At first her voicemails and messages were full of anger and rage. But Jacob began to realize he should return to her when they became tired. Then worried. One of her messages even asked if he was safe, if he was hurt, wondering why he wasn’t picking up. Eventually, her number rang and he answered, and told her why he wasn’t coming home yet. Then agreed to go home.

Roth had dropped him off at the apartment building with a few bags of his clothes and necessities. Jacob had a hard time getting out of the car, Roth’s mouth on his neck stinging and feeling so wonderful. He managed to get away from the other man, grinning and blushing and breathless, dragging his things up to his apartment. He was shaking from the excitement of Roth, and struggled with the keys for quite some time before he was able to get inside.

The moment he managed to get everything in the entryway, Jacob was encaged in a hug by Evie. The elder twin had sprinted from her room to him, arms winding around him and hugging him tight. “Oh, Jacob! Thank god!” She sounded relieved, looking at him with worry. “Where have you been? Are you okay? Do you have any injuries, let me see!”

The twins struggled for a moment before Evie finally let go of Jacob, who gave her a little smile. “I’m fine, I was just at a friend’s,” he said. Saying friend about Roth felt strange now. His mouth still hurt from the fire of their last kiss, which had lasted for nearly twenty minutes. “I know you’re really upset about my fighting, but-”

Jacob was suddenly aware of how Evie was staring at his neck. Her eyes were wide, eyebrows raised, and it looked like she would be unable to speak if she were to try. They wandered from left to right, focused below his face. His stopping mid speech seemed to draw her attention, and she pointed to his neck. “What are those? Are… Are they what I think they are?”

That was when Jacob remembered Roth’s mouth on his neck. It happened often since they first kissed. Dark bumps scattered his neck, a few teeth marks very apparent on his skin. Evie was looking at them, then up at Jacob for an explanation. Jacob just watched her, surprise in his own eyes. How could he forget about those?

“I… Um… It’s private.”

“... Jacob those are definitely not private, what with how you’re showing them off like you are.”

“That isn’t on purpose.”

Unfortunately, Evie didn’t look convinced. She eyed her brother with thought, Jacob hating that he was stuck between her and his luggage. “Evie can I go put my stuff away? And I’m hungry, I’ll order pizza.” When Evie stepped aside Jacob was quick to escape to his room and look in a little wall mirror at the damage.

His neck was completely covered in the red welts. Jacob ran his hands over his neck, feeling them like a mountainous terrain. One stung when he touched it, and he moved his hand back and whimpered. The dull sting of the bites and marks was amazing to Jacob, though. He didn’t think this kind of pain was real and felt so good. Pain usually never felt that satisfying to him.

Unpacking was quick, and Jacob called up a nearby pizza place and ordered. When his pizza was secured, Jacob went out into the living room and collapsed onto one of the bean bags, sighing low. Evie walked into the room and leaned on the door frame, her arms crossing and watching him. At first they sat in silence with Jacob trying to ignore her, but eventually he knew he couldn’t get out of this unscathed and looked over at her. “What question are you dying to ask now?” he asked.

“Was the man you ran off with the same one to put those on your neck?” she asked. The look on her face made it clear to Jacob that she knew more than she would tell him, so trying to lie wouldn’t go very well. Jacob hated when he was found out like this. His fighting, his… relationship wasn’t quite the right word. This fling with Roth, Jacob wanted to keep it a secret from Evie until he figured out exactly what he was feeling. It was all too early to be able to talk to her about it.

“That was Roth, he’s my…” Jacob sighed. “He’s my trainer okay? Instead of staying as a little fighter at some pub he’s trying to help me get into the higher ranks.”

Evie looked amazed by that. “Wait, you want to get into professional fighting?” Jacob was surprised that she didn’t sound upset by that. Far from it, her tone was almost pleasant.

“Yes…?” Jacob sat up a little. “I don’t want to just be that guy from Crawley anymore.”

The relief on Evie’s face made it even more confusing for him. Evie always disapproved of his fighting since she had begun to train and teach self defense. Why the sudden change? As if to answer, she walked over and sat down on her own bean bag. “Jacob, I was so scared you would just be that… that person you were before, just fighting for fun…” She covered her face. “It was terrifying to think it would happen again… But… You’re actually working hard?”

“I train with Roth almost every day, Evie,” he said. “I have to start low but I’m already gaining some traction.”

Evie nodded a little bit, shaking her head. “I still thinks this whole thing is foolish,” she said. “I want you to work with me at the school, but… If you’re actually trying to work hard…”

Jacob stood up and went to his room before Evie could speak more. At first the elder Frye was confused, worried her words had offended her brother, but Jacob knew what would change her tune. He went through one of his dresser drawers, pulling out a bundle of cash. He went back to his sister and crouched, holding the money out to her. “You always complain about how expensive rent is, and the debts on the car and opening the school…” Evie’s eyes were on that money, then up at him, her mouth gaping. “Consider it my first installment of all the IOUs you’ve taken over the years.”

There was silence between the siblings. For years, Jacob was the one getting into to trouble, causing problems, ruining and wrecking things. Jacob who was needy, clingy, it was Jacob who had a hard time dealing with change, who dealt with things poorly. Jacob, who needed his sister to carry him through life and make sure he was okay every step of the way. Yet now, Jacob sat there with money in an amount neither have them had seen before. He didn’t want any of it. Showing Evie that he was doing better, showing her that he could make it… This was the first step to making it up to her. Relief washed over him when she took the money from his hands, rather shaky and staring up at him. “Jacob you don’t have to-”

“Please don’t make my parting with money any harder than it has to be,” he replied. He stood and rubbed the back of his neck… How did a hickey get back there?

“Thank you, Jacob.” Evie stood up and was going to put the money away but she ended up staring at Jacob’s neck again. “... I think whoever gave you those should stop. I haven’t even met them, you know if you’re sneaking around with someone it won’t go well.”

The look in her eye was clear she knew who it was. Jacob blushed. “It’s fine, Evie,” he said. “I’m going to go rest a bit. Okay?” He went back to his room when Evie nodded. At first he just crawled into bed, ready to wrap himself up for a nap, when his phone buzzed. He checked his phone and felt heat in his body. Roth.

_ So how did everything go with the sister? _

Jacob shifted and smiled.  _ Ok. Lil mad but not 2 bad _

_ So what’re you wearing my darling? _

Jacob grinned like a child. He quickly got up and locked the door to his room, then removed his shirt. Phone extended, he took a photo and sent it. His trousers were low enough to just expose a nice amount of hip, and he was beaming to himself.

_ Beautiful, dear _

Jacob’s heart soared. Glancing back at his door, he tapped his phone a little and bit his lip in thought. But when he glanced down at his phone, reading that “beautiful” again, he nodded to himself. Crawling on his bed, the trousers and underwear quickly came off, Jacob shifted to a nice position, and raised his phone to get another good picture.


	13. Suitable Discipline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >v> I am enjoying myself every time I post a chapter I hope you are too

Jacob couldn’t get out of a punishment with Evie. While the two seemed to have an understanding of the other, Jacob understood that his running off without a word was worthy of  punishment. Evie wasn’t really good at punishing him - all their lives she was the only authority for Jacob, and she had a habit of spoiling him. They both knew that.

But her plan was absolutely diabolical.

He had to help Evie get a date with Henry Green.

“You can’t be serious!” Jacob was sitting in the passenger's seat, feet propped up on the dashboard. “I am not going to help you land a date, you should be able to do this yourself!” He was scrolling through social media. Roth had pointed him in the direction of people in the local fighting business, and Jacob was satisfied to see his picture and information coming up more and more. One man even kept tabs on Jacob’s fights, and Roth would feed him information on Jacob’s next fights before they got posted on the rosters. Seeing his name all over these sites, it was satisfying. His phone buzzed constantly with notifications, as well as texts from Roth. Things were very back and forth. One minute they would be talking serious, the next would be a series of messages about things Roth wanted to do with him. Heat always built up in Jacob, and he liked to think about those things, but so far he was unsure. He hadn’t talked to Evie in great depth, and Jacob slowly began to realize he would have to discuss all this with Roth before he allowed it to get any further. For years, he had never really looked at another man in that way. Or at least he never noticed. Now he was looking at Roth with so many wants, so many desires, and it was difficult to figure out where to go with that. Twenty one years of thinking one way, then realizing you were actually thinking another, it was a little baffling.

“Hey, you said I could pick a good way to teach you a lesson,” Evie said. “This is my way of doing that. I’ll go teach, you’ll go to his shop and see if you can land me a date.”

“Why can’t you?”

“I’m teaching.”

“Before?”

“Prep.”

“.... After?”

“Jacob, just do it.”

Jacob helped Evie open the school up for the day, switching the signs to open and unlocking some of the doors to places like the locker rooms, bathrooms and one of the main training areas before Evie ushered him to the front door. “Now, little brother,” she said. “I’m going to work. You don’t have work for another two days, and it’s a night fight. So make yourself useful and go talk to Mr. Green!”

“His name is Henry, you know,” Jacob replied, rolling his eyes. “Okay, okay! You don’t need to shove.”

“If I don’t you won’t go.”

“Well I’m going now, so calm down!”

Henry Green ran a little flower shop almost directly across the street from the school. It was little and nice and bright, even among this run down neighborhood it seemed to bring a bit of joy. Kids likes to play in front of it. The front had flowers that were on display only, but if someone wanted to pick on, Henry never said no. The flowers inside were nice and bright and sweet, incredibly cheap with unrealistic discounts during holidays. Jacob figured Henry had to find other ways to make money; this seemed more a refuge for people running away. It was a little haven for a woman fleeing from her abusive husband to get comfort and love and flowers before being directed to self defense training just across the road.

The little bell that rung when Jacob walked in was cute, too. Jacob wasn’t sure he had ever seen so much… adorable in one place. The entire shop was filled with so many colors, light and happiness. It smelled amazing (obviously) and Jacob had to take a moment to admire it. He wasn’t sure if he had ever actually been in Henry’s shop, just stood outside it. There was shuffling in the back, and Henry appeared carrying a few plants. The smile on his face was natural, friendly, and when he saw it was Jacob he grinned. “Jacob! Hello! What brings you here?”

As Henry began to arranged the potted flowers on the counter, Jacob walked over and leaned against it, looking at him with a grin. “Well, hello, Greenie,” he said. “Nice little place you got here.” Henry didn’t seem very impressed by his attempt at small talk, so Jacob figured he would just try to cut right to it. “Okay, look, I’m here because I think you would be interested in my little proposition. Thought I would share some ideas with you.”

“And what would that be, Jacob?” Henry’s politeness seemed unending, and Jacob couldn’t tell if Henry was already annoyed with his presence. There was a high chance that Henry could have been annoyed since Jacob entered the shop, but the man was too positive and nice to say it or show it.

“Okay, picture this.” Jacob stood up, arms opening, gesturing to the air. He gave a grin. “Nice dinner? Maybe a movie? Something simple with a certain special someone. You know who, come on.”

Henry’s surprise… wasn’t quite what he expected. Something was off. The surprise on his face was also a little off putting, and Jacob waited there with his hands in the air for a response of some kind. The situation got awkward almost instantly, and Jacob could only feel regret for the situation.

Fuck Evie, this sucked.

“I… Jacob, I appreciate your offer, but…” Henry shifted. “... You do know I’m straight? I thought you were…?”

The level of awkward skyrocketed.

“What the hell, Greenie!” Jacob felt his cheeks grow hot. “I didn’t mean me! I… Fuck this is…” He took a step back and covered his face. It really hit him how awkward this was. Even with his own confused feelings about men. All of this was making things worse. “I didn’t mean me!”

“Well, you were implying that…”

The two stood in silence, and Jacob just let out a pained groan and turned and left the shop quickly. It wasn’t until he had crossed the street that he realized he could have just clarified that he was talking about Evie. But his frustrations with men, followed by a rather uncomfortable and unintentional rejection from Henry had really messed with his head, and he walked back into the school and immediately went to the little desk that Evie had told him he could relax at. He passed Evie teaching some young kids some new pressure points, and she gave him a confused and worried look. He just raised a hand to brush her off, sat at the desk, and rested his head down against its surface.

“Okay, practice trying to find the points. Please do  _ not _ press them too hard you don’t want to hurt yourselves.”

Jacob felt Evie’s presence at his elbow. He shifted to rest his cheek on the desk and he looked up at her expectant face. “Well?” she said. “How did it go? What did he say?”

“... Well, he dumped me.”

Evie’s confusion made the situation a little better. “What?”

“He rejected my declaration of love.”

“Jacob!” Evie crouched and looked offended. “You did what?”

“I tried to ask him out for you but he thought  _ I _ was asking him out and it just got awkward and I couldn’t stay.”

The twins stared at each other. The children were practicing finding pressure points on themselves and each other, but it all didn’t matter as the twins just watched their sibling and processed the situation. Eventually, Evie covered her face, stood, and sighed. “This was a mistake…”

“No shit it was a mistake!”

One of the kids gasped. “He said a bad word!”

Jacob gave that child an appalled look. “I have had a rough day!”

“Jacob,” Evie was rubbing her forehead. “Please. Language.”

“ _ You’re  _ telling  _ me _ to watch my language.” Jacob snorted. “This is fucking unreal.”

“Bad word!”

“Jacob!”

When Evie smacked the back of his head, the children cheered. Jacob wasn’t cheering at all. However, his heart leapt when he received a text from Roth.  _ Lunch? _ was all it read. He didn’t want to deal with further attacks from Evie, so he stood, waved his phone, said “lunch” and ran off before Evie could object. This punishment would have to wait, he could fulfill it later. He wanted a date with Roth. When he got outside, Jacob replied with a simple  _ ye _ and then the address of the school, then leaned against its wall and waited for Roth’s car to roll up.

Eyes settling on Henry’s shop, Jacob’s stomach twisted a little bit. That entire situation was pathetic. Even he knew that. Trying to set up a simple date and rushing out when a miscommunication occurred. But things were appearing in his head that he was so confused about. Laying in Roth’s bed with the man over him, biting his neck and chest and feeling him up through his trousers. It was… It was absolutely incredible. Jacob didn’t know he liked that so much. Roth was an expert at it, too, that was obvious. Jacob’s cheeks flushed. Roth had taken his first kiss. Well, his first real kiss anyway. He had done a couple more dare type kisses growing up, a few that were more like falling into the other and heads slamming together. This was his first real serious kiss, Roth was the one to take it that day in the kitchen. Roth’s hands on his body… Roth. Roth. Roth.

Crossing the road, Jacob went back into Henry’s shop. Henry was arranging some flowers and looked up, and the discomfort was still obvious on his face. “Jacob, wha-”

“Evie wanted to ask you out but she was too nervous,” he said. “So she asked me to do it for her. Pretty pathetic right?”

Henry looked stunned. “She… asked you to....?”

“Yes, and you better get your ass across the street before you miss your chance.” Jacob gave him a little nod and turned, walking out of the shop. When he stepped out, his stomach got light and fluttery. Roth’s car was there, and Roth grinned at him from within. “I know the perfect place for lunch, darling, you’ll love it.”

Darling.

Roth’s body pressed against his, breathless kisses, realizing the sun had risen by the time they were finally ready to sleep.

Jacob got in the car.


	14. Fantasies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very short filler chapter. But I'm loving it buddy. I'm more than loving it.
> 
> Someone stop me.

Everything had moved so quick, much faster than Maxwell Roth could have ever anticipated. He felt absolutely weak, the way he began to catch himself staring at Jacob more and more, feeling his presence as a calming place, everything about that little bird being solace. Jacob Frye had become his own source of refuge before he knew it. Roth loved a chaotic world, he loved to see people baffled and amazed, but even he needed a breather.

That night in the car with Jacob was the moment Roth knew he wanted the boy.

Everything had been filled with lust, he knew that. Jacob was young and dashing, he could steal any heart with simply a glance. Roth had always been interested in men, so he wasn’t surprised when someone as gorgeous as Jacob had caught his eye. Strong yet gentle, brave yet reserved, somehow Jacob managed to turn his world around and make him interested to know more.

But that night in the car.

Roth had been a little angry. He didn’t see what the problem was. Jacob had complained about his sister before, but he didn’t understand why Jacob would be so worried about her, so nervous and scared. He was an adult, not a child! It frustrated him to no end, and he had half a mind to yell at the boy about how he wasn’t responsible to deal with Jacob’s personal problems like Jacob was making him. Before Roth could get a word out he realized that Jacob was hyperventilating. He looked over and Jacob’s chest was moving fast, his eyes looking unfocused, and Roth grew worried the boy was going to pass out at any moment. Everything seemed to slow down when he stopped the car, unsure what to do. Jacob looked at him with wide and glossy eyes, and Roth didn’t know what overtook him. He just followed an instinct that took his chest and he had taken his gloves off, carefully petting Jacob. It was like what he would imagine doing for a pet in a similar situation. And it seemed to help Jacob, because he fell asleep curled up in that seat. Roth had never seen someone so powerful and handsome as Jacob in a position like that. Never had Roth seen someone like Jacob look so small, so helpless, not like that.

Roth wasn’t an affectionate person, nor was he one to think of comfort.

Whatever happened in that car, though, Roth knew he wanted to make Jacob his.

And it was in the kitchen that his gut had taken over again, telling him to kiss Jacob. The boy was standing there, wanting to talk about the car events. Roth had actually felt a little panicked. He had never felt so panicked before in his whole life. Yet he couldn’t explain to Jacob what it was that caused him to pet Jacob, to want to make sure he could calm down. He couldn’t explain to Jacob why he  _ wanted  _ to do that. He couldn’t explain to Jacob what this feeling in his chest was. Jacob was beautiful and good and…

Roth felt liked a damned man being saved by an angel.

When Jacob’s mouth touched his he felt overwhelmed a moment. At first he could hardly believe they were actually like that, pressed together and kissing. When Roth’s hands got on Jacob, it felt amazing, Roth was already addicted to this drug of a man and he wanted all of Jacob in his system, clouding his vision, muddying his brain.

Jacob’s plea of “wait” had pulled him to reality. At first Roth felt like it was a rejection. He felt sick and angry. It had all built up and he had stepped away and watched Jacob collect himself. But then he saw the look in Jacob’s eyes. And he knew that Jacob was his. Those starry eyes, looking at Roth like nothing else mattered.

Nobody had looked at Roth like he had value.

Every night Jacob would spend with him was a dream come true. Sometimes he would feel a little annoyed that Jacob wouldn’t want to go below belt, but he knew he had no right to object to it. Based on the boy’s responses, his reactions, his way with Roth, he had never experienced anything like this. Roth hadn’t either, but he knew more than Jacob. At least in terms of sexuality, Roth had known most his life. He had certainly acted on it on more than one occasion. But this stuff Roth knew in his head to be affection and love - that was all so foreign. Roth wasn’t sure what to do with that. He knew how to be romantic if he really wanted, but it was more of an act, more of something he knew how to do when he wanted something from someone.

Maybe he could use it as an act to get Jacob to love him back?

Every night with Jacob under him, gasping his name. Roth’s mouth on his chest, memorizing his body, his skin. Every bruise, scar, Everything about Jacob he wanted to know by heart with the tips of his fingers and his tongue. Jacob writhing under him and panting and biting back noises of desire when Roth kissed lower and lower and lower. Jacob was both so built and yet so soft. His body was a perfect in-between form. He was beautiful.

His kissing was adorable. Roth always hated inexperienced kissers, but he found he loved Jacob’s inability to kiss. It was endearing to know he was Jacob’s first kiss, teaching Jacob how to fit his mouth against his perfectly, the taste of Jacob’s mouth heightening Roth’s senses. His darling. His gorgeous darling.

His little bird.

Not to mention Jacob seemed to know everything that made Roth want him more. His body could squirm and shift in ways that rubbed up to Roth, that looked so lovely. Roth wouldn’t object to just watching Jacob like that, it was satisfying enough. Jacob always called him “Roth”. But in bed, Roth’s hips rolling against his, Jacob’s legs on either side of Roth’s waist, and kissing and biting and clawing, all Jacob could moan was “Max”. It was so filled with want, with love, it was something Roth never imagined his name sounding like. He was so used to Roth. He never realized he could be Max to someone.

Jacob’s pent up sexual tension was wonderful, too. Roth thought about that a lot. He could feel Jacob’s lust and wants coiled up in his body, being released slowly by simply kissing. Roth couldn’t get Jacob’s pants off, but certainly hips grinding together and hands exploring, Jacob had gotten over the edge on multiple occasions. He was always so startled when it happened, sputtering apologies, eyes blown and cheeks red and lips parted so lovely. He had already heard Jacob moan his name during a climax and they hadn’t even had sex yet. It was so teasing, Jacob was a drug. Roth wanted more. So much more.

It was hard to keep his hands off Jacob. During fights, Roth felt an urge to step in and snap the opponent’s neck and he often closed his eyes and gripped the edge of the ring until he worried his gloves would rip from the tension. When Jacob got out of the ring he managed to hold himself back until they got to the car. After he knew Jacob’s injuries. He would kiss each one, gentle and sweet, if they were bad. If they weren’t, he would push Jacob up to the car and they would be like that for nearly an hour. Jacob’s mouth. Jacob. Jacob. Jacob. Jacob. Jacob. Jacob.

Roth pulled out these thoughts, head shaking. He looked down at his papers, feeling a little frustrated with all the schedules. He didn’t want to do any of this. He wanted Jacob.

His phone buzzed, and Roth was relieved.

Jacob wanted to go to lunch with him.


	15. Rewards

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUUUHUHUHUUHUHUUHUHUHUHHUHUUHUHUHUHHHHUUHUUUHUHUHUHUHUHUHU

Two more fights passed before Roth got the notice.

Everything had been going smoothly, falling into a normal pattern. Jacob would spend lots of time during the day with Roth, then evenings with his sister, and once or twice a week he would be at the ring. Not usually fighting, but going with Roth to fights other people he trained. Half of the time they wouldn’t be paying attention to the match. Instead, whispering to each other, hands wandering, and leaning close. It didn’t happen very noticeably - the two had to keep their relationship a little more private for reputation’s sake. But Jacob could never mistake the hand on his lower back, rubbing gently and causing little jolt of electricity to pass through his spine.

As soon as they reached the car, there was always something. Jacob was often in Roth’s seat, which was leaned back, and they would kiss for what felt like hours. Jacob was learning to kiss better, and it was obvious Roth was enjoying teaching him more than just fighting. Everything about themselves fit the other perfectly, and Jacob was easily becoming more and more comfortable with the man.

Those last two fights of Jacob’s had certainly drawn attention. Jacob’s last fight wasn’t even in a dirty old ring. Some middle and upper class people had some fighting arenas they would rent out for events, and Jacob got to fight in an actual ring, not a pen of wood or ropes. To actually be in a more professional setting, it was thrilling to Jacob. He would see the approval and amazement in Roth’s eyes. Roth seemed completely thrilled that Jacob, his Jacob, was climbing high and higher.

That was when Roth got the call.

Jacob was training, Lewis holding up thick padded gloves and Jacob working on his punches. Roth was admiring Jacob from afar. Gorgeous body, the focus in his eyes. His little bird was beautiful. Roth watched Jacob’s hips, his backside, the v of his waist going down into those sweats. How he wanted Jacob writhing under him and begging for more. Roth wanted to take off those trousers slowly, make Jacob beg for more, then press him into the bed and -

His phone buzzed in his pocket and Roth looked down at it. Starrick’s name caught him by surprise. Just a week or two ago he had mentioned in a memo to his “employer” something about Jacob. Normally Starrick never made contact or showed signs of interest for months at a time. This was definitely new to him. He usually didn’t speak to Starrick for months on end, just his usual updates.

Roth made his way to his office while he answered. The voice on the other end wasn’t Starrick, which at first surprised him, but then he remembered that Starrick had a little assistant who usually handled his affairs for him - Lucy Thorne.

“Mr. Roth,” her voice was very… precise to Roth. Almost scripted to him. He didn’t like people like that. “I was calling to inquire about a young man in your care, a fighter. His name is Ja-”

“Jacob Frye, yes, the one I mentioned to Starrick not long ago.”

That irritated little miss Thorne. Good.

“Yes, Mr. Frye,” Thorne said. That little rehearsed tone of hers was gone, and it was full of venom. Roth preferred this Lucy on the phone or in person. He didn’t like her rehearsed attitude. “The boy has certainly been gaining momentum. Popular in London fighting. You’ve been working hard, and we want to maybe meet with him and see if any professional contracts could be made of this.”

This was more than good news. Jacob had finally climbed up. He was making it. Just like the boy wanted, he was finally making a name for himself. He could have anything he wanted, do anything he wanted, be anything he wanted. Roth would be there to help mold him, make him wonderful, and kiss him after every fight, bandage his wounds, pet him and give him the love and appreciation he deserved. Only Roth could give him that kind of attention. And that’s what made Roth’s heart soar as he heard those words.

“I can take a look at his schedule and send available times. Would that work with you?”

“Mr. Starrick is busy, but I’m sure I can persuade him to make an opening.”

“Good. I’ll send the info right away.”

Roth spent a bit of time looking through Jacob’s schedule as well as his own. Normally when Roth had time off of his duties he liked to spend that time with Jacob. Finding a time Jacob had nothing to do while he was busy seemed like the perfect idea. He found a few dates and times and sent texts of them to Starrick’s number before he went out to look for Jacob about the good news.

He went out to the training area, but Jacob wasn’t there. After a moment of looking around, Lewis pointed him to the direction of the showers. Roth had a few extras put in for people training. Jacob in the shower was a really nice thought as he sauntered over. Jacob was getting out just as Roth arrived, a towel around his waist and some clothes in his arm, ready to get changed. “Ah, Roth-”

Without a word, Roth grabbed Jacob’s hand. He dragged the boy along, getting a few complaints, but by the way Jacob followed him, the boy didn’t seem that bothered. Roth pulled him along to his office. It was time for them to celebrate.

Roth closed the door behind them. Jacob stood in the middle of the room, slightly damp from his shower, and confused. He was so beautiful. Absolutely amazing, every drop, every shine on his body gave Roth a buzz nothing else could. Those dark yet bright and large beautiful eyes looking at Roth. His absolutely beautiful mouth with lips parted. Roth wanted all of that.

“Roth, you wanna maybe tell me wh-”

Roth moved to Jacob and kissed him, silencing the boy. Almost instantly Jacob fell quiet, eyes closing and melting. His arms went around Roth, who was pushing Jacob back. Eventually the little bird was sitting on his desk, Roth standing comfortably between his legs. Arms around each other, feeling for the other, grasping desperately. Roth began to kiss Jacob’s neck, hands moving down to grasp Jacob’s rear. Light gasps escaped Jacob, and it was thrilling. His legs squeezed Roth’s sides, body squirming and hips raising against Roth’s. Every noise he made, the movement of his body, Roth forgot why they were there. He just wanted Jacob, rubbing up against him and kissing his neck and biting and leaving marks. Jacob. Jacob. Jacob.

Roth’s hands slid up the towel around Jacob’s waist and the breathless whine made him feel he was going mad. He needed to do something. Anything. He felt Jacob writhing more against him and was unable to stop himself from pulling the towel open.

“I- wait…”

Roth pulled back and looked Jacob in the eyes. Jacob was panting and trembling there on the desk, eyes blown with desire. His cheeks so pink and his lips - god, those beautiful lips, quivering. They watched each other a moment, and then Jacob nodded slightly and his legs wrapped around Roth’s waist. “Only a little, I…”

Roth’s mouth went back to Jacob’s neck, biting and feeling the skin under his mouth. He let the towel lay around Jacob, his waist exposed. He was so beautiful, sitting on his desk like that. Jacob was so hormonal in quite an adorable way - already he was half up and blushing and groaning. Roth knew just how to get Jacob wanting more.

His mouth moved lower. Kisses trailing from Jacob’s neck to chest, kissing his stomach with love, and to his waist. Jacob’s hands were in his hair and he was gasping, eyes wide and amazed. Roth was crouched, looking up at him with amusement. “Never had any of this, I assume, darling?” He was more than satisfied when Jacob shook his head.

Roth usually liked to get things done quickly, but seeing Jacob as a panting mess was far too wonderful. He pressed kisses to Jacob’s thighs, hands rubbing his hips and just around his groin. Jacob’s breath left him and his hips bucked a little, cheeks a bright red and biting his lip. Roth grinned up at him and pressed a kiss to Jacob’s length, which caused Jacob to squeak and squirm more.

“Max…”

That caused Roth to want to do more to the boy instantly. Pressing more kisses to Jacob, his hand began to work Jacob until he was completely hard. Jacob was extremely sensitive, already soft moans were spilling from his lips. He was breathing hard, eyes closed and nails digging into the desk. He hadn’t been stimulated quite like this before.

“I promise you, darling, you’ll feel absolutely marvelous…”

This wasn’t Roth’s first time doing anything. Seeing Jacob experience a tongue rubbing his length was absolutely amazing. Jacob’s breath hitched in his throat a moment, body shaking, and when Roth’s mouth went around him he let out a low, shy groan. His hands wound their way in Roth’s hair again, fisting locks of it. Jacob was an absolute mess, and Roth’s mouth and tongue only focused on the tip. His head fell back, groaning and shifting. “Max… Mm… Max…”

It was addicting to hear his name moaned like that. Every time Jacob said it, Roth wanted to do more. His head began to move, taking Jacob into his mouth. He rubbed Jacob’s hips and stomach, looking up at him to watch the pleasure on the boy’s face. Jacob was absolutely stunning. Jacob’s taste was wonderful, addicting (no pun intended), Roth wanted more. It was easy to see and feel Jacob getting close. He’d never experienced this, and it was obviously more than he could handle. Roth’s tongue rubbed the underside and he watched expectantly.

“Max… Max I….” Jacob whimpered, a hand covering his mouth as he moaned into his palm. He looked beautiful. Roth would remember this moment clear as day forever. Jacob’s gasps and weak breaths, his name on his tongue, the heat all over the boy absolutely consuming him. Jacob was in the middle of a desire he wasn’t familiar with, and Roth was the one to cause this.

This boy was an absolute prize.

Roth was right in that Jacob came rather early. Roth had very little gag reflex, and was able to take it with ease. Jacob was breathing heavy and looking tired, and he groaned “Max” a final time. When Roth stood, he leaned against Roth’s chest, breathing hard and nuzzling into him. 

“A little reward for working so hard,” Roth said. “I got a call from Starrick’s assistant, and they’re interested in meeting you.”

Jacob’s starry eyes looked up at him. “They did?” his voice was airy and full of heat. “I… I’m gonna make it higher up?”

“You most certainly will, my dear.”

Jacob nuzzled into him, trying to level his breathing. “... Can…” He shifted. “Can we do that more?”

Roth raised his brows, looking down at the boy. “Of course?” he sounded more amused than anything. “Darling, if I could I would do these kinds of acts to you every single night.” The blush on Jacob’s face somehow managed to brighten more, crawling down his neck in a beautiful red. “And I will every night I can.”

When Jacob seemed to be getting his breath, he stood, pulling the towel around his waist. He kissed Roth’s cheek before glancing to the door. “Do we still have a few minutes?” he asked. His shifted from one foot to the other, looking a little embarrassed. A shy little bird. Roth loved it.

“Of course we do, if I say so.”

Jacob bit his lip in thought, then nodded. “Okay…” He kissed Roth’s cheek, moving close to his trainer. Then he moved down, much to Roth’s surprise, getting on his knees in front of the elder man.

“Darling, you don’t have to do that.”

“But I want to.”

Jacob’s eyes were still so dazed, but full of light and affection and want. Roth felt his own heat building as Jacob began to fumble with his belt. What a beautiful little bird.


	16. Say Those Words To Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uvu They precious

That night, Jacob had slept better than he had his whole life. He normally let Evie know if he wasn’t going to be home, but any thoughts of responsibility were out the window. Now everything on his mind was Roth. Lying in bed together, mouths connected, Roth’ hands touching him. Roth’s mouth  _ on  _ him. Jacob was amazed he had so much energy for Roth. Half the night they were giving the other head and pulling the other’s hair. Roth’s praise made him feel like he was on a completely different world. He was somewhere happy, better, amazing. With only Roth there to praise and love him and give him attention. Roth was so good with his mouth. Jacob hadn’t had this many orgasms in one sitting. Yet he seemed to have more than enough energy for it, and whenever Roth began to kiss down his body he was so thrilled for Roth giving him more. It was more than anything Jacob experienced, and when the two were finally spent and fell asleep together. Jacob had awoken fairly early, he didn’t bother to check a clock, but Roth was still asleep. Every time Jacob had stayed over, Roth had always awoken much before him. Yet Jacob felt awake, and he didn’t feel like he woke up from any nightmares. Roth’s arms were around his waist, and Jacob had to take a moment to remember they were both naked. He felt a little embarrassed but happy by that. It was his first time sharing a bed with another man being completely bare. And having the other man be so exposed, too? He nuzzled into Roth and kissed his cheek.

Jacob Frye was in love.

The idea of being with men was no longer a problem for Jacob. That much was obvious. But looking down at Roth, watching his features as he slept, Jacob’s body felt drawn to him, his heart skipping a beat at the thought of him. Jacob’s hand touched Roth’s cheek, and it felt hot against his fingertips. Roth was a raging fire contained in one man. And Jacob knew he wanted to burn. “I love you…”

His fingers traced Roth’s jaw, then up to that large scar on the side of his face. He didn’t know the story behind that. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. Jacob had never stared at it, never showed that he noticed it. A part of him thought Roth appreciated that. It was large enough that his eyebrow didn’t move too much, not compared to the other. The widening of his eyes was more just one. His grins were a little lopsided, the scar tugging Roth’s mouth a certain way. But it was Roth. It was handsome and it was him. Jacob couldn’t even picture saying anything about Roth being ugly. He wasn’t. Just as Roth thought Jacob was beautiful, Jacob thought the same of Roth.

Jacob slid out of bed and pulled on his sweats. The spare clothes he had brought over to change after working out hadn’t been worn, so he was putting them on fresh. He stretched his arms above his head and went right to his gym bag to check his phone. Indeed, multiple missed calls from Evie. He was surprised to see that it was before seven in the morning. Normally he was still asleep beyond this time. And if he was awake it was because of nightmares, terrors, anything bad. There was shifting behind him, and Jacob figured that Roth was beginning to wake up. He put his phone in his pocket, turning to see Roth sitting up, his arms stretching high above his head. “Good morning, sleepy,” he said to the man.

Roth seemed surprised that Jacob was already awake and dressed. “This is unlike you,” he commented, looking Jacob over. “Rough night?”

“No, actually.” Jacob crawled onto the bed, right into Roth’s lap. “I slept amazing.” His arms went around the man and their lips met. It was slow and lazy and happy. Roth’s mouth was amazing in so many ways, but even like this, Jacob felt joy bubbling in his body. Being with Roth, kissing Roth, Roth’s arms around him and holding him and making him feel loved. Roth. Roth. Roth.

“I should be heading home…” Jacob mumbled as Roth leaned back, pulling Jacob with him. Roth lied on his back with Jacob on his chest, looking up at him and kissing loose and gentle. He didn’t want to stop kissing Roth. He wanted to kiss and kiss and kiss and let the day pass by with Roth. He loved the heat between them, but also this cool, nice calm.

“Do you really have to leave so soon?” Roth’s voice was low and warm in his ear, sending shivers down his spine. “I don’t know if I want you leaving just yet.” He nuzzled into Jacob’s hair, arms around him tight, holding on like if he let go Jacob would disappear.

“I didn’t tell Evie I was going to stay here,” he mumbled. “You know she gets angry and all that…”

“I want you here.”

Jacob felt his heart hammer in his chest. The words were on his tongue, ready to spill out. His love, his affection, everything, he wanted to say it all to Roth. But his throat grew tight and he stared up at him with love in his eyes instead, wanting so badly to tell Roth. He had said it a moment ago, why was it so hard now? Roth had been asleep, it had fallen on unconscious ears. Now Roth could hear him, look at him, respond to him. What if Roth pushed him away? What if Roth didn’t feel the way he did? The idea of being rejected terrified him. Roth obviously had some kind of affection for him, but the idea of scaring him away by declaring his love was something that worried Jacob to no end.

Whether Roth could sense his distress or not, Jacob couldn’t say. But the way the man shifted them so that Jacob was under him, their kisses warm yet soft and nice. Jacob’s legs on either side of Roth’s waist, Jacob still embarrassingly aware of how Roth was naked and he was not. Roth didn’t seem focused on that, though. His hands rubbed Jacob’s waist, pushing up his shirt enough to touch the bare skin but no more. He focused on that kiss, knowing just how to make Jacob breathless. The two were deeply entwined, lost in the other and happy to be so.

At least until Roth’s phone went off.

Both men swore quietly, and Roth sat up and glared down at it. “Some people should have the decency to call later…” He was still leaning on Jacob, who watched him with weak breaths. Roth grinned down at him a moment before grabbing his phone and answering it. “Yes? Roth speaking…” He looked surprised. “What do you mean he’s in the hospital? He’s supposed to fight tonight!... Well, he’s a damned fool for fighting drunk… Yes, fine, I’ll be over soon. Don’t wait up for me, the shit doesn’t deserve a whole envoy.” Roth tossed his phone on the nightstand and sighed before looking at Jacob apologetically. “Another time, darling.”

Jacob nodded, but his chest ached. He knew he was supposed to go home and make sure Evie wasn’t angry with him, Roth had to go see an injured fighter and figure out money plans and scheduling. But he wanted to lie in bed with Roth like that forever. Ignoring the world. Why did Roth have to answer that call? Why didn’t he just ignore it?

“Your apartments aren’t much of a detour, my dear.” Roth stood and began to grab some clothes. “I’ll shower quick and bring you home. Say hello to your sister for me, will you?” The devious grin on his face cheered Jacob up a bit.

“Yeah, you wish,” Jacob said. “She would rather kill you than look at your mustache.”

“Aw, but my mustache is nice.”

“I mean I think so.”

Roth gave him a wink before leaving the room. Jacob watched after him and sighed weakly. The words managed to get past his mouth the moment the door closed, soft and barely a whisper.

“I love you, Maxwell Roth.”

After waiting for a little while in Roth’s room, Jacob decided to wait for him in the lobby of the Alhambra. The theater was beautiful, it was such a strange place for a fighting trainer to be located in. Yet somehow it fit Roth perfectly. The man hadn’t talked about much of his history, but Jacob could tell he had a creative streak to him. He was grand and wild and vivid and detailed. Everything about him was this theater. This gorgeous theater was him.

Roth was buttoning a nice waistcoat as he got to Jacob, a bounce in his step but a set goal in his eyes. As he got to Jacob, his arm went around the boy’s shoulders and they walked out together. Jacob felt Roth’s hand slide down. And down. And down. He gave Roth a look. Roth just smiled innocently. This man was far from innocent.

They kissed for nearly ten minutes in the car before leaving. When Roth brought him home they kissed for fifteen more. Hands wandering, breaths shallow, legs shifting and Jacob was practically crawling into Roth’s lap. Eventually they had to let go of each other, panting, staring at the other with want until Jacob finally got out of the car. It always broke his heart to leave.

“I’ll let you know when I have some free time next,” Roth told him, and Jacob nodded. He closed the door to the car and it sped off.

Jacob watched after it, and his heart felt pulled along after him.

“I love you, Max…”

* * *

 

“There you are!”

Evie was by the door, a worried look on her face. “You didn’t answer any of my calls!”

Jacob gave her a smile. Evie knew that Jacob had been seeing someone, but he had managed to get her attention off Roth for who he could be in a possible relationship with. At least he had that going for him as Evie stood there waiting for an answer.

“Okay, I was training, then I went and stayed the night with a friend…”

“Who is this friend?” Evie demanded. “It makes me nervous you don’t want to tell me where you are!”

“Eves, I always tell you, I just forgot last night.” Jacob brushed by her, going to the kitchen and looking through the fridge. It was still early in the morning for him, but the leftover pizza they had looked good. He didn’t even bother to warm it up as he took a slice and leaned on the counter, facing his sister. “Look, when was the last time I didn’t tell you where I was?”

“When you were trying to hide you were fighting.”

“And how long ago was that?”

“... A few months ago.”

Jacob nodded. Normally his “secrecy” or “lying” streaks wouldn’t have more than a month between them, they were always too frequent. When Jacob had a few months between, it meant he probably wasn’t. Not until it became consistent. “I promise, I just forgot, my phone was in my bag and on silent. You know I do that when I’m training.”

“Okay, fine…” Evie watched him a moment, then her head tilted and eyes narrowed. “I was thinking about calling up that Mr. Roth, your trainer.”

Jacob choked on his pizza.

“You know, just to meet the man training my little brother,” she said. “I haven’t met him. It’s kind of funny, you talk about him a lot for someone who is just a trainer, and he manages your schedule. Yet I’ve never even seen a photo of him. Do you think I could meet him at some point?”

Jacob managed to unlodge the pizza in his throat, gasping as he stared at his sister. “Well… I… I mean… Uhh.. I mean I guess but-”

“Oh, good!” Evie smiled. “I’ll call his assistant straightaway!” She pranced from the kitchen, leaving Jacob to gawk after her.

Jacob wasn’t sure he could finish his pizza anymore.

Why did Evie always know more than she let on?


	17. Icy Hot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY ITS DONE

It was a double set of meetings that day that caused Jacob’s headache. He woke up from nightmares, thrashing in his bed and gasping for breath. Evie was right there with water and painkillers. Jacob’s body always burned and stung after his terrors. Evie pet his hair, whispered comfortingly to him, but it wasn’t helping. Today was the day that he would meet with Starrick, and that alone was terrifying. Even more frightening, while he was meeting Starrick, Roth would meet Evie. They would meet. Evie would meet his trainer and boyfriend. Jacob felt sick at the idea.

He had begged Roth to say no. He was almost certain Evie knew it was Roth that Jacob was seeing, and he wasn’t ready to deal with Evie on that end of it all. But Roth seemed to think that he could handle “little miss Frye” and pass with flying colors. Jacob wasn’t sure if he was proud of his confidence or angered by his stupidity. Of course Evie would want to meet Roth. Suspicions or not, Evie was often the one in charge of making sure Jacob was safe, since he was pretty poor at doing that himself. It was one of the biggest reasons beyond financial that Jacob and Evie lived together even now. With Roth’s help for hospitals, Jacob was happy to know he was becoming less and less of a financial burden. He was getting quite a bit of money from his fighting, and it seemed to impress Evie.

But she was going to meet his boyfriend.

That was all Jacob knew to call him. Roth and him had not yet spoken of what they were, but Jacob could only see them as a romantic relationship now. Training, sure, but that was his boyfriend training him. His boyfriend.  _ His _ boyfriend. His  _ boyfriend _ . It just sounded… right.

Jacob wasn’t completely sure how Roth felt about labels. He didn’t seem to communicate much on that end. He didn’t even call himself a trainer. Just said he was “currently in the business of training fighters” and would get annoyed if Jacob mumbled “trainer” beside him. When Roth was showing Jacob off, Jacob wasn’t supposed to get into the details. Answer questions, or let Roth answer questions for him. Just show his skills, sit there and look pretty. He didn’t really mind, those people were pretty boring to him. But if Roth didn’t even like “trainer” how could he possibly ever like “boyfriend”?

Jacob had slept in late, but he was on time to be able to walk to Starrick’s offices. Roth was going to some fights, then meet Evie at the Alhambra. Jacob was hoping to get out of his meeting with Starrick early enough to intercept his sister on her way there so that he could either prevent the meeting altogether, or at least stop them from speaking too much to each other. His plan seemed solid, fool-proof. There was no way he could mess this up.

The day was bright and lovely, and it took all of Jacob’s willpower to walk at a quick pace. While he had time to walk to Starrick’s he knew that if he took his time he would be late. And Roth had lectured him for almost an hour about how important this meeting was. Even though there was a pleasant breeze, the sun peeking out from the clouds, Jacob kept a brisk pace down the streets.

Talking about meeting Starrick was the most stressed and nervous Jacob had ever seen Roth in their time together. He had been a pacing mess, talking in detail to Jacob about Starrick and his assistant Lucy Thorne. Lucy would meet him in the lobby, ask him some questions about who he is and how long he was fighting as they walked to Starrick’s office. She would go in, Jacob would wait, and then he would go in to meet Starrick. Then questions about his training with Roth, his experience in fighting, detailed questions about his fights would come up. Roth had kept a detailed record of Jacob’s fights, earnings, injuries, all of it. Starrick had every single record Roth had written in his possession. Jacob would have to just talk and be himself, though Roth seemed even a little nervous by that.

It hadn’t been until they were in Roth’s bed and kissing that Jacob realized Roth was worried that Starrick wouldn’t see what Roth saw. It hadn’t been very obvious to Jacob at first, but as Roth pulled his clothes off and kissed him all over, Jacob noticed he took extra time to kiss, slow and affectionate in all his stress. Jacob could feel all over his skin and in his veins that Roth thought of him as someone with so much potential, someone who was worth it, someone who should have the whole world at his feet. Feeling that as Roth’s mouth explored him… It was a love like nothing he had felt before. Roth wasn’t the best with his words, besides simple flirting and compliments, but that moment Jacob knew Roth didn’t need to say anything. Jacob just understood.

Jacob was lost in his thoughts of Roth as he got closer to Starrick’s offices. Roth was something Jacob had never expected, but the best thing in his life. He seemed to understand Jacob in a way that others didn’t, not even Evie. He looked at Jacob like nobody else did. Roth was a fire and Jacob was burning hard. He was completely engulfed in it. Jacob felt like he was burning at the thought of Roth alone, his head and chest catching alight as he walked. He was wondering why people weren’t screaming in horror at the man who had spontaneously caught fire at the thought of his boyfriend. Roth’s eyes created burns. His touch was searing hot, causing a pain that Jacob was addicted to. Roth’s presence ignited a hell-like flame and Jacob wanted to be consumed by it.

Step one of getting into Starrick’s offices failed miserably. As he was lost in his thoughts of Roth, Jacob ran straight into the door. He stumbled back, and realized that it was glass. And that a woman stood on the other side, eyes wide with surprise and annoyance on her mouth. Jacob gave a nervous smile and waved. “Please tell me that’s not who I’m supposed to meet…”

The woman opened the door as he reached, obviously lacking confidence in Jacob’s skills at opening entryways. When he entered a lovely lobby, violets and blacks and shimmering crystal chandeliers, he turned to the woman and gave a little mumble of thanks.

The woman had blonde hair, wearing a nice dark suit, and looked him up and down. By the look on her face, she wasn’t very impressed, which made Jacob shift a little in discomfort. His shuffling from one foot to the other didn’t seem to help his case, and she looked down at some paperwork. “Mr. Frye?” she said. She didn’t sound happy.

“Yes, um…” Jacob coughed and nodded. “Yes, that’s me.”

Any life left in the woman’s eyes seemed to have left. Jacob felt his stomach twist a little. He really wished that Roth was there to speak for him. He wasn’t good at this. Talking to people, professional settings, anything like this. It wasn’t very normal for him. And by the look on this woman’s face, this was also the last thing she wanted to be doing right now. At least they had that in common.

“My name is Lucy Thorne,” she said. “You’re just in time for your appointment with Mr. Starrick. Follow me.” She turned on her heel and began to walk through the doors leading out of the lobby, and Jacob followed. They traveled down some halls, various rooms and office doors around them. Jacob glanced into a few, but he kept his focus trained on Ms. Thorne. That was what Roth said. Pay attention. Pay attention. Pay attention.

“Mr. Roth tells us that you’ve been in London very recently,” Ms. Thorne commented over her shoulder. She barely glanced back at him. “How long has it been?”

“About eight months,” Jacob said, shrugging. “Maybe closer to nine, actually.”

“And when did you take up fighting?”

“Do you mean here or back home?”

“Here, Mr. Frye.”

“A month after moving here. Met Max-” Jacob stopped. “... Mr. Roth approached me after my first fight here. Was at Topping’s, and I took on about seven or eight men before leaving the ring.”

“Impressive,” Ms. Thorne commented. “Do you fight like that often?”

“As often as I can, yes.”

Ascending a staircase, Ms. Thorne was looking at some paperwork. “You seem to put yourself out there pretty hard in the ring,” she commented. “Mr. Roth has a few hospital records?”

“Only for a rib, but it wasn’t as bad as we thought.”

“And the other?”

“... Oh, right, a concussion.”

Jacob’s cheeks got hot with shame as Ms. Thorne glanced at him with a raised brow. “I’m recovered from it, I promise,” he added.

After taking some time going up the stairs, they got to a grand hallway, with a large set of double doors on the other end. There was a little assistant’s office beside it, with some chairs for waiting in the hall. They walked to the doors, and Ms. Thorne turned on her heel once more (Jacob thought she was quite good at that move) and looked him up and down. “If you’ll wait out here,” she said. “I shall let Mr. Starrick know that you’ve arrived.”

Jacob was surprised that Roth had predicted almost his entire visit so far. He took a seat, leaning back on the wall and watching Ms. Thorne enter the double doors. He didn’t get a good look inside the room, but the little bits he saw, he knew it was grand. For the head of the building, the business, and to be involved in the top fighting in London, Starrick’s office  _ had _ to be grand.

Jacob felt nervous, the pit of his stomach feeling hollow and uncomfortable. He took out his phone and texted Roth.

_ Nervus _

_ Youll do fine, darling _

_ Ran into dor _

_ You what? _

Before Jacob could reply, Ms. Thorne opened the doors and nodded to Jacob. “Mr. Starrick will meet you now,” she said. Jacob tucked his phone away as he stood, walking into the office. He was right that it was grand - a piano, the desk was giant, walls of books, a giant window and beautiful London all on display. It was like Starrick could look out his window and see his domain. He pretty much did. Fighting business, as well as other areas of shipments, investing, products, the whole lot. Starrick had it all.

Starrick was at his desk, many papers scattered over it from a folder. Jacob saw his picture on one of the files and he felt embarrassed. Starrick was looking into those before he got there. He didn’t realize that he was adjusting himself as he approached the desk - pulling on his shirt, adjusting his hair in his hat, the like. Starrick looked up at him with a cold, harsh gaze.

Roth was the fires of hell itself.

Starrick was the dead of winter.

Jacob’s whole body was chilled, uncomfortably so. He sat down across from Starrick and wondered if he was actually freezing on the spot for a moment. That gaze was unwelcoming, uninterested. Jacob longed to have Roth beside him, a burning warmth against this icy man.

“Mr. Frye,” Starrick’s voice was low, calm, methodical. Roth was loud and bright and strong. How many ways could Starrick contrast? “You have made quite the impact since you’re arrival in London. Headlines in the fighting world.”

There was something oddly threatening about Starrick’s compliments, and it chilled Jacob to the bone. But this man could get him in the big leagues like nobody else could. He could get Jacob a lot of cash, and so long as Roth was there, Jacob would be happy and take any deal Starrick threw his way.

“So I’ve been told,” Jacob replied, leaning in his chair. Roth had said to be himself and have a good demeanour about himself. Jacob’s way of doing that was attempting to be casual around this overly formal man in front of him. That was probably a poor decision, but it was all he knew to do. “You’ve been looking at the headlines?”

“I have,” Starrick answered. “When my recruiters pick up new trainees, I pay close attention to see where the real talent lies. And based on your records, Mr. Roth’s testimony… You would seem like a good fit for professional fighting.”

That compliment didn’t feel nice. It felt hollow and dry, but Jacob couldn’t help but feel that this was Starrick at his most genuine. That was a little bit of a disappointment. “I would be interested in professional fighting.”

“How long have you fought?” Starrick asked. “Mr. Roth and his assistant have incomplete records, only your time in London. When did you begin?”

“When I was fourteen I started to do some basic fighting in the schoolyard for bets,” Jacob said. “The moment I was seventeen I entered a real ring, and from seventeen until twenty one I fought in Crawley about once a week. My sister did as well, for a time. Fighting is in our blood, pretty natural. My father was Ethan Frye.”

The name raised eyebrows. For the first time, he was thankful for his parentage.

“Ethan Frye ran a school here for fighting and self defense years ago.”

“Yes, and my sister is running it now, while I got into fighting.”

Jacob wasn’t sure why he lied next. “Father taught me and my sister everything we know. We’re skilled fighters. Ma- Mr. Roth has just been working out some of the kinks in my fighting since father died.”

“Your father passed?”

“Not long before we decided to move here, yes.”

Starrick nodded and looked down at his files. “How has training gone?” Starrick said. “It seems Mr. Roth keeps detailed records on your progress. His notes say you can progress easily and adapt based on command alone?”

“Yes,” Jacob said. “It’s really easy for me. If I’m doing something wrong you can just tell me. I can’t completely explain that part of my fighting… I can just change on command. When M… Mr. Roth finds something he doesn’t like, he tells me, and I can just change it. It only takes a few tries to get it to feel natural and instinctual for me.”

The conversation was very mild after that, even a little boring to Jacob. He had a little bit of difficulty staying focused, but he managed to keep up his end of the conversation enough. Starrick’s personality wasn’t really something he liked, but for work, that didn’t matter. Jacob figured that, socially, Starrick didn’t really like him either. But if he sponsored Jacob, threw him into fighting and took a cut of his winnings and was able to promote him and get him high up, the publicity would help a lot, personality or not. And Jacob was sure Starrick was happy Jacob had personality at all. In professional fighting, personality was just as important as actual skills. Even with their awkwardness, though, Jacob was happy that he answered questions smoothly and thoughtfully, doing well. Just as Roth had taught him to.

“Well, we have a contract all up and ready,” Starrick said finally. “Only a draft. You can take a copy to look through and get back to us on any points you might not like, we can make any necessary adjustments. Does that sound good to you?” He looked bored by Jacob’s nod. “Out you go, then. Ms. Thorne is in her office, she’ll get you the documents.”

Jacob was met by Ms. Thorne in the hallway with an envelope of papers, and then she escorted him quickly out of the building. Both Mr. Starrick and Ms. Thorne seemed glad to be rid of him. It was easy to see why Roth loathed interacting with them. He liked the idea of just taking their money, sending little emails of progress, and ignoring them otherwise. It made sense.

Roth.

Jacob pulled out his phone and he had a few missed calls. He also had a few texts.

_ What do you mean you ran into a door _

_ Jacob? _

_ Jacob answer you brat! _

_ Oh wait your in the meeting _

_ Have to go, fight over _

Then. Just as he was going to text back, another messaged popped up.

_ Your dear sister is at my door. I promise I wont gossip about you. _

Jacob’s heart almost stopped.

Evie was at the Alhambra.

Evie was meeting Roth.


	18. Light the Match...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is real short and sorry if it a little awkward but I promise for more and more goodies

The idea of meeting Evie Frye was both exciting and terrifying. Roth wasn’t the type to want the approval of others (besides Jacob) and while that was true now, he know this whole thing was a stretch. To get Jacob’s affection and approval he would need to impress Evie. And in order to impress Jacob further there was no mentions of their times together in bed, lips locked, hands wandering, or Roth below the sheets with Jacob writhing and-

Adjusting his tie, he stepped to the stage. Some of his boys were practicing, Lewis doing some basic help for training. Roth had given them all things to work on before, and it gave him a way to impress Evie. As they would speak, Roth would show her around, yell some commands and comments at his trainees, then usher her on out before Jacob even knew they were meeting. He was busy with Starrick today, anyhow. Roth didn’t need Jacob worrying his pretty little head over too many things at once.

Everything was in a nice presentation, and his office was fit just right. Jacob’s original files and notes were on his desk in case Evie was wanting to look at them (not including the notes Roth made for himself that were slightly inappropriate about Jacob, those got removed hours ago and stashed away somewhere she couldn’t find them). But as the clock ticked to the time Evie said she would arrive, Roth felt a little jumpy, fidgety. He ran a hand through his hair, staring up at the clock. He wasn’t nervous. He didn’t get nervous, he was Maxwell Fucking Roth.

Evie’s arrival was a bit of a mess, Roth was able to admit that. He was in his office, making sure that everything was going smooth, organizing, planning, muttering to himself and preparing himself for meeting the sister of his… boyfriend? Lover? He wasn’t sure. The door to his office opened and one of his staff informed him that Evie was entering the lobby at that moment. In his rush to leave, he knocked over a chair (and hurt his shin in the process) and as Evie was just entering the main hall of the theater, Roth wandered out onto stage…

And he fell right off the edge.

He had his eyes on Evie, who was looking back at him. She was wearing dark jeans and a nice button up shirt. The lady certainly cleaned up much better than her brother did on a casual basis. Jacob usually just threw on whatever he wanted and didn’t care how it looked. Roth often had to fix him up and lecture him on presentation, only to get Jacob looking crabby and rolling his head and sticking his tongue out at Roth.

As he had taken some steps, ready to call a greeting to Miss Frye, Roth’s foot caught the edge of the stage and slipped. Falling forward off of the stage, he rolled a moment on the floor before staring up at the ceiling, laying on his back and looking annoyed. “... Lovely,” he muttered. This was a wonderful way to start of meeting Evie. Hopefully he could make up for this slip up (no pun intended).

As he stood, Evie was close enough to him and crossed her arms over her chest. By the look on her face, she was not very impressed by Roth himself, though she did glance around at the Alhambra and Roth recognized that expression of wonder whenever someone entered his domain for the first time. She and Jacob were definitely twins, they certainly grew up together. Whenever Jacob was curious and amazed, his lips parted ever so slightly. Evie’s did the same.

“Good day, Miss Frye!” Roth said with a grin. He had to just pretend that he didn’t fall in front of her. Simple, easy. Right. “Lovely to meet the family of my most prized fighter!”

Evie nodded to him in greeting, looking him over. “So you’re Maxwell Roth,” she said. “I read up a little on you. There’s not much information out there, but you certainly seem to be well known all the same.”

“Ah, yes” Roth turned and hopped up on stage, holding his hand out to help her up. “I prefer to keep as much anonymity as I can. Which is fairly difficult to do.”

Evie accepted his hand, following onto the stage. Watching some fighters practice, she hummed a little. Roth smiled a little to himself. Jacob hummed when he was happy, or saw something he liked. “I see you have just about everything right here,” she commented.

“Yes, thre are some other training rooms in some of the backstage areas,” Roth said, “but I like to have it all on display if I can.”

“That seems a little egotistical.”

“Well, I want my boys to all climb up in ranks. Is it egotistical, or is it to support them when my clientele visit?”

Evie raised a brow at him, then began to look around. “So you’re pretty successful,” she said. “Why are you interested in my brother? You think he has that much potential?”

For a moment Roth froze, and he had to collect himself quick. She meant interested in Jacob fighting and career-wise, not romantically or sexually. Especially not sexually… right? “Well,” he coughed and quickly walked to the little ring in the center of the stage, where two of his trainees were fighting. “You’re supposed to block with your arm and keep your elbow in you fool! Again!” He was thankful to distract himself for a moment.

Evie walked over, raising a brow. “You… do think my brother has potential, right?” she asked. Roth suddenly heard worry in her voice, defensiveness. She was worried her brother wouldn’t make a life for himself, that he had false hopes and unrealistic dreams. “If he can make it, then he really needs this…”

Roth turned to Evie, his hands going to his pockets. “Your brother has more of a shot at the big leagues than half my boys here,” he said. He ignored the whines of protest from some of those who heard him. “I only had to see him fight once to know he was capable. And he’s getting better and better every day. You should be proud of him.”

“I am proud!” Evie looked appalled by his statement. “I’m so proud he’s actually trying to make a good career out of fighting instead of just rolling around in the dirt his whole life!”

“Well, you’ll be happy to know he’s meeting with Crawford Starrick about a sponsorship and a contract as we speak.”

Evie was stunned. She was looking at Roth like he was some strange mythical creature. Roth wondered if he was to the Frye twins. Evie saw no future for her brother until Roth showed up. Hell, even Jacob didn’t see his own future until Roth showed up. With a simple flex of a finger he was giving these two young, foolish, passionate children what they wanted - Jacob’s future. Roth was giving a little more to Jacob’s future than Evie was aware of, but there was a gratitude in her eyes that Roth couldn’t miss. “You know, your brother is also extremely adaptable. The easiest to train.”

“You’re still talking about Jacob Frye right?”

“Yes,” Roth said with a nod. “He can follow any command. If he’s doing something wrong, he can correct it almost instantly and it’ll become natural. He’s an excellent student.” Roth took a moment to think of how this also applied to the bedroom, Roth mumbling anything to Jacob and the boy was able to perfect anything simply by Roth giving him directions.  Then thoughts of Jacob were there. Jacob’s smile, his laugh. His lovely eyes. Jacob’s hair in Roth’s hands. Jacob’s skin against his. Jacob’s body was beautiful. Jacob. Jacob. Jacob. Ja-

“Mr. Roth?”

Evie was looked at him with a raised brow. “You look a little dizzy?”

“I’m fine, apologies,” Roth nodded to himself a little. “Just lost in thought a moment there, some things I have to take care of before the day ends.”

“Evie! Roth!”

Both turned their heads to the entrance. There came Jacob, practically in a sprint, holding some papers. Papers. Roth’s eyes sparked. A contract.

“You got it!” Roth couldn’t help but laugh. Evie was still amazed, but Roth forgot all about her. He forgot everyone in the room but Jacob, who dashed over to the stage as fast as he could. Roth hopped down, walking over and snatching the papers from him. He didn’t notice the worry on Jacob’s face, nor did he really care. Jacob had a contract. They would review it and then Jacob would get the career of a lifetime. Jacob made it.

Evie slid off the stage and went to her brother. They hugged tight and close, Evie whispering praise and comfort to her brother. Jacob’s worry melted away and he looked happy and proud. The siblings continued to embrace for a while as Roth quick skimmed the pages. Things looked good from a little glance, but he would have to look at it more later. For now, Jacob was what was important. Roth watched the siblings and felt a little bit of jealousy. He wanted to pick up Jacob, kiss him and hug him and bring him to bed and reward him for such a success. But there was Evie. In the way.

“We need to celebrate!” Evie said. “Jacob, you’re going to-”

Jacob glanced at Roth, and the moment their eyes locked they both knew what the other wanted. He touched Evie’s arm and smiled. “We can celebrate tomorrow?” he said with a polite little grin. “I want to review things with Roth, and maybe do some training. I don’t want to slack off.”

Evie’s pride for her brother seemed to swell even more. The idea of her brother wanting to just keep working to get better, even if he had such a high success? Roth was amused by Jacob’s ability to pull strings. “Okay, but first thing tomorrow we’re going out and celebrating. Okay?” Evie glanced at Roth. “I’m sorry we didn’t get very much time to speak,” she said. “But thank you for giving him this opportunity.”

“Of course, Miss Frye,” Roth said with a little bow. “Now come, Mister Frye. We should review these papers.”

Evie walked to the exit in bright spirits as Jacob Frye and Maxwell Roth found their way into Roth’s bed.


	19. Third Degree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I take a break for a little bit and I come back giving u porn.  
> Congratulations.  
> I hope ur happy  
> Here's porn for the nerds

Sheets and blankets and pillows rubbed against Jacob’s back. He was breathless, head tilted back into the mess of the bed, his chest rising and falling quickly. His hips raised to the lips against it, writhing and shifting as hands slowly began to pull down his trousers. He had been in a panicked rush when he was ushered to the shower. THey had fallen into Roth’s bed, made out, hands feeling for the other and mouth’s exploring. The excitement, the heat, everything, it was driving Jacob mad until he stopped Roth and looked him in the eye and mumbled “More.”

Roth had them both get showered - he taunted Jacob by not allowing them to shower together - and Jacob threw on his shirt and pants, no socks or underwear or anything, and almost sprinted to Roth’s bedroom. As soon as Roth arrived, there they were on his bed again, Jacob under him, now shirtless, the bottoms going too, and he was feeling heat in his stomach and chest and cheeks and oh lord Maxwell Roth was going to make this feel amazing.

Roth was slow and careful and teasing. Kissing him all over, kissing his waist and sending waves of heat with each press of mouth to skin. Roth was setting Jacob ablaze with every touch, and how Jacob wanted to burn. Hands tugged off Jacob’s pants, tossing them aside, and he took a moment to look Jacob over. The panting, breathless, shy and needy fighter under him squirmed, a little embarrassed.

“Beautiful.”

Jacob’s heart sparked, and flames burned.

Roth was still clothed, which annoyed Jacob a little. He wanted to see Roth, too. See his body, surprisingly muscular, though he was a lean man. Smooth and rough at the same time. Amazing and perfect. Jacob felt heat in his neck and cheeks and chin and forehead and all over his face. He wanted Roth just as much as Roth wanted him.

Their lips connected and Jacob barely noticed Roth reach for something in the drawer of the nightstand. Jacob knew how this stuff worked, though he never really had the chance or desire to experience it until now. His legs were pushed up and open and he whined, looking up at Roth with dazed eyes. Roth just grinned at him and kissed his neck. “You’ll do fine, darling,” Roth whispered against his skin. “Just fine.”

Jacob nodded a little. He knew this stuff could hurt a bit, and sometimes felt kind of weird. But Roth had done this before. He knew how to make Jacob feel good.

Hands touching his length caused Jacob to gasp and his hips to jerk. He still wasn’t used to Roth touching him like that. Every little bit of contact with Roth like this set Jacob off. Which meant, unfortunately, that Jacob probably would last long during sex. If Roth knew that, he didn’t seem to let on, touching Jacob with one hand as the other, now slick and cold with lubricant, began to rub Jacob’s entrance.

That alone was an unfamiliar feeling, but Roth was an expert. The discomfort was gone almost instantly and Jacob was breathing hard, eyes closing and trying to take deep breaths and stop his heart from hammering in his chest. “M...Max…”

That caused a finger to push into Jacob almost instantly. It felt strange. Different. Jacob shifted and bit his lip a little. It didn’t feel too bad as the finger moved in him, rubbing some spots that caused waves of fire and burning in his body. He liked that. It felt good. When the second finger was added, there was a little sting as they began to open him up more. He whimpered a bit, but managed to keep any real pain down. The third finger was a little more difficult, opening him up like that. Fingers moving apart to widen him, but always rubbing against spots that felt extremely nice. Jacob wasn’t sure if he was in pain or if he was feeling pleasure. Both, at once, in different waves. All while Roth was touching his dick. That felt amazing.

Still, Roth was patient. He knew what to do to get Jacob used to the feeling, he knew what signs would show that Jacob liked it. It would take a bit, but he knew Jacob was capable. The youngest Frye was still adjusting as Roth reached and grabbed protection from the nightstand next, temporarily halting from touching Jacob. There was a whine of protest, but Roth just gave him a look and the boy quieted.

“You’ll feel wonderful,” Roth’s voice was rough and low in Jacob’s ear. Jacob looked up at him with eyes blown with desire and excitement. “I’ll make sure this is the best experience…” They kissed, and Jacob watched with heat and lust as Roth opened his trousers. He didn’t seem very interested in getting naked for Jacob, which was a little frustrating, and Jacob sat up a little and pulled on his shirt.

Eyes locking, Roth stopped and pushed Jacob down gently. “You have to ask nicely, darling,” he said, looking Jacob over. “Now what is it you want?”

“I…” Jacob’s hips rose and he squirmed. “I want you naked, too.”

“What do good boys say next?”

Jacob’s cheeks could not have been redder at this moment. “Please, sir…” he breathed, shifting and tugging on Roth’s shirt again. “Please, I want you naked, too, sir.”

Pressing another kiss to Jacob’s mouth, Roth sat up and very quick his own clothes were removed. Jacob lost his breath at the sight of Roth’s body. Slim and strong and smooth, besides a few scarred areas. Much like his face, the scars he had on his body were rather bad and jagged. But they were absolutely beautiful to Jacob.

By now Jacob felt used to the fingers in him, which still moved and opened him up. He felt hot and embarrassed and wanted to touch when Roth reached down and began to touch himself, getting fully hard. His breath got low and a little rougher, which made Jacob’s head and shoulders and neck catch aflame. Jacob was burning. He was burning, burning, burning.

It felt a little weird to have his legs pushed up towards his chest then, but having Roth looking down at him, fitting right between his legs, kissing his legs, his hips pressed against Jacob’s backside, and -

Jacob let out a soft whine as Roth rubbed against him, his length teasingly pressing against Jacob’s ass. About to push in, but not quite yet. Jacob could hardly breathe, yet he was also breathing heavy like he couldn’t get enough oxygen into his lungs. This was exciting and terrifying, thrilling and worrying. Roth was there, on him, wanting him. Jacob was wanted. Like this. By someone else. Jacob knew Roth wasn’t a man of words beyond casual flirting. Every heated, burning kiss to his skin spoke millions of words, though. Every touch, caress, everything was spoken in a love language that was both foreign and familiar to Jacob.

“Now, what do you say?” Roth’s voice was barely audible to Jacob, he was speaking so low. “What do good boys say?”

Roth’s hips rolled against Jacob and the little bird gasped. “Pl… Please…” Jacob whimpered. “Please, sir…! Please, sir!”

It was heat and pain and pleasure and flames all over Jacob’s skin when Roth entered him. He breathed smoke from the burning of his insides as he moaned, head tilting back and eyes rolling up. Roth held his legs, watching patiently. Jacob squirmed and writhed, gasping and whimpering whenever he moved. The pain, the pleasure, it mixed together. It was so good, his head was dizzy. Roth was… Max was inside him. They were one.

“Max… Max…” Jacob looked up at him, though his vision was almost blurred. He had so much energy, adrenaline, he was so happy and excited and pain and pleasure and so many emotions and sensations that Jacob felt overstimulated. But he didn’t care, he wanted more. The clearest feeling, one that did not mix and dribble into other feelings, was that flame, that spark, that burn all all over. Roth’s fire, Roth’s rage, Roth’s everything. Jacob burned.

Mouths connected as Roth’s hips moved slow, muffling Jacob’s groans and giving the boy something to focus on. Their tongues danced, pressed, fought, though Jacob could hardly put up a fight as Roth’s cock slid out slowly, then pushed back in with both gentleness and a force that sent Jacob’s head spinnig. The man knew how to angle himself right, rubbing up to nerves and spaces that caused Jacob to break the kiss occasionally to curse or groan. Jacob fisted the blankets under him, his knuckles pure white from the grip. His chest was rising and falling quick. Roth held him tight, kissing his cheek before just having their foreheads together, watching his lover as he moved in him.

Their bodies were in perfect sync. They could feel everything the other felt, anticipate the needs before anything was spoken. As the slow gentleness began to feel dull, Jacob was about to mumble against Roth’s mouth that he wanted more, but Roth’s hips push a little harder and faster and Jacob was lost in it again. Roth was still careful and sweet, but Jacob was seeing the whole world burn as he got a little rougher with Jacob every time it felt too familiar. Jacob’s hands left the blankets and went around Roth, nails digging into his back and creating marks and lines along his skin. Jacob didn’t notice that he even drew a bit of blood when Roth thrusted none too gently and deep in him, causing a loud moan and a bucking of the hips from the boy under him.

Roth seemed to decide that was an efficient way of getting Jacob off. He set up a nice, decent pace for Jacob, but every now and again Jacob would get fucked hard and fast for just a moment, then back down to the normal pace. Roth wasn’t predictable, either, and Jacob was cussing and moaning loud every time Roth got rough with him. He felt burning hands exploring his body, Roth’s arms adjusted to hold Jacob’s legs up still. Jacob’s entire body seemed to alight when one hand wound its way around his own length and began to touch him, moving in time with Roth’s pace.

“Max… Max… Max…” Jacob couldn’t say anything else. That was all that was on his lips as heat built up in him. He had been fully consumed by this fire, and was now burning. First degree in his eyes and ears. Second degree on his lips. Third degree everywhere else. They were a fire that could destroy the world. Jacob wanted their heat, passion, rage, excitement, all of it, to burn down the Alhambra itself, for god’s sake. They were amazing together. They were amazing as one.

That was when Jacob felt himself become undone. The heat in his stomach, his abdomen, hips, it all released in a wave. He broke in the middle of a kiss, groaning hot against his lover’s mouth, calling out his name in a desperate cry as his and Roth’s stomachs were covered in his seed. Roth paused, fully in Jacob, letting the boy relax and catch his breath. Jacob knew he wasn’t going to last all that long. Not as long as Roth could, anyway.

Roth shifted, pulling out of Jacob and letting the boy’s legs fall around him. He cradled Jacob’s head in his hands, pressing kisses to his cheek and forehead and nose, whispering praise. “You did amazing, darling. Absolutely marvelous.”

Dizzy hands hugged Roth close and tight, and Jacob was breathless. He felt amazing. He felt perfect. When he shifted against Roth, he felt the man still hard against him and blushed. “I’ll help…” he mumbled. Roth put a firm and steady hand against his shoulder as he began to shift them so Roth was laying on his back.

“Are you sure? You seem awfully tired, my dear,” Roth said. “You can rest, I’ll take care of this myself.”

“I want to.” Jacob still felt his entire body on fire, smoke rising from his skin, his fingers, from his hair, his eyes, mouth, nose, ears. He wondered if he looked like he had just been into the flames of hell. That probably looked neater than the flames of Maxwell Roth. “I want to.”

Roth pet Jacob’s hair as he slid down.

This process continued the whole of the day. Sex, rest, sex, rest. Sometimes a food break.

Jacob didn’t know sex was so good.

Sex with Roth?

Perfect.


	20. What I See (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are cute little filler chapters I came up with that I have been waiting to write for like over a month I hope you like this because I really do.
> 
> This one is stuff Jacob notices about Roth. The next chapter will be things Roth notices about Jacob. Short but fun?

Jacob Frye noticed that Maxwell Roth was very particular about his appearance.

Waking up in Roth’s bed, stretching out, his body sore, Roth was up and grabbing some clothes from the closet. He saw Jacob awake and walked to him, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead and petting his hair. Jacob felt comfortable under the blankets and he smiled. “I’ll get you some clothes when I get back from my shower.” He left Jacob there on the bed, but Jacob didn’t mind. It smelled of Roth. He loved to lay in Roth’s bed and relax.

But he noticed Roth was particular about his appearance. Roth was gone for a long time. The clock ticked by and Jacob grew somewhat bored. When Roth got back he was mostly dressed, but took quite some time standing in front of a mirror and adjusting his clothes, running his fingers through his hair, tucking in his shirt, moving his belt, fixing himself. Jacob thought Roth was fine before he was working on all this, but after nearly ten minutes, he was practically the picture of perfection. He put a hand in his pocket and went to get some spare clothes for Jacob. Jacob took less than half the time it took Roth to get ready. The only reason he was a little slow was because his ass was incredibly sore and he practically clung to Roth as he was helped to the bathroom. Roth gave him some pain meds, but unfortunately those don’t kick in right away.

The sex was absolutely amazing. It was the best night of Jacob’s life, and he could hardly wait to be in bed with Roth again. He was tempted to bed Roth again that morning, but his ass hurt so bad that any actual following through with that idea was out the window. Yet when he got back to Roth’s room he noticed that Roth was looking over some messages on his phone and adjusting his tie. That adjusting. Why does he do that?

Roth adjusting his tie, his shirt, and his hair almost five times before they got to breakfast. Jacob wasn’t sure if he noticed Roth doing all that before, but it was something he definitely noticed now. The man always had a personality that said “I don’t give a fuck about what you think of me” and even sometimes expressed those types of feelings. Yet he was so careful about his appearance, he ate carefully. Everything was precise, executed to perfection, and kept up to perfection. It was strange to Jacob, who hadn’t even cared about any of those things for himself. He wondered suddenly if his own unkempt appearance annoyed Roth. He knew Roth would fuss over his clothes sometimes, adjusting things on Jacob while he was lecturing him, or clean up his hair a little. Only when he was fussing, though.

After they ate, Roth wanted to look over a few things before taking Jacob back to his apartment. They went to his office and Jacob looked over some of his social media and how popular in the fighting groups he was getting. That was satisfying. He glanced over to Roth and noticed the quirk of his eyebrow, his hand rubbing his mouth, leaning back in his chair as he looked at some papers and files. When something seemed especially interesting or concerning, Jacob noticed the slightest twitch of Roth’s mustache. It was rather adorable. Jacob noticed that from the moment they met. He liked that about Roth.

It didn’t take long for Roth to get bored of this work. He gathered it up, standing and rounding his desk. He touched Jacob’s shoulder gently, signaling for him to follow. When they got out of his office onto the stage, he gave the files to Lewis. “Take care of these and organize it all for me, will you?” Roth sounded annoyed. “I’m in no mood for this.” That was something else Jacob had taken note of the more he was around Roth. The man was proud of managing so many schedules, training people, and arranging fights. Yet after only ten minutes of work he got bored of the paperwork and gave it to Lewis to handle. Jacob always teased him when he actually did a whole round of paperwork without Lewis taking over. Roth didn’t like that. That was fine. Jacob liked that.

As they left, Jacob felt Roth’s hand on his lower back, his above his backside. It was warm and gentle and Jacob was still feeling like he was recovering from the burning he felt all night, and it made him shift. Roth always had a hand on him, it was interesting. As they had breakfast he had a hand on Jacob’s leg. His hand was touching his back now. Whenever they’re in the car, Roth usually touches his hand. Jacob figured that would happen when they got to his car. And he was right.

If there was anything for Jacob to notice about Roth as they got into the car, it was that he was very subtle about a like for music. He acted as though he didn’t care, and allowed Jacob to put whatever he wanted on the radio. Roth seemed neutral to it all as he drove, but the last few times Jacob noticed that Roth tapped his fingers on the steering wheel or on the windowsill of the car. Roth always sped up a little if Jacob touched his hand. They usually held hands lazily in the middle of the seats, but if Jacob’s thumb ran along Roth’s knuckles, or his fingers danced on his palm, Roth always drove a little faster. The excitement of their relationship seemed to affect Roth as much as it did Jacob. That was nice to know, too.

There were countless other things that Jacob knew Roth did, rituals or habits that became his routine that he could never shake. He always sat up in bed and stretched his arms above his head before doing anything else, and Jacob always heard his back crack and groan and pop with joy. If he was working with multiple items in the kitchen, he always focused on the ingredients he put on his left first instead of his right. He was always rubbing his mouth when he thought - his mouth or his chin. When he was particularly stressed, he would work on his upkeep even more, usually combing his hair with his fingers. His gloves were also something Jacob noticed constantly. When they went out, those dark gloves were always on. Even at the Alhambra, if there were more than three people around himself and Jacob, he would put them on. The moment he was alone with Jacob, though, they came off. He wondered if Roth even noticed this habit of his. 

The last thing that Jacob noticed about Roth was that he had mood kisses. They pulled into the parking lot of Jacob’s apartment, and before Jacob left, he and Roth shared a long, happy, desperate kiss. Jacob knew Roth’s kisses by now, had them memorized. When they meet up for a date or to spend time together, the first kiss they share is usually warm and slow. Over time the kisses turn more casual, calm, less intense (unless they fall into bed, then the kisses are full of desire and pleasure and lust). But when Jacob is about to leave, Roth’s kisses become passionate, harsh, full of a love that Jacob was still trying to grasp and understand. Roth was never good with words beyond casual flirting, but the kiss always showed how sad Roth was that Jacob was leaving. And it always made Jacob’s heart ache. It did that time, too, as Jacob got into the apartment buildings as Roth drove off.

Jacob noticed how his body felt light and his heart full as he left Roth. He noticed how his phone buzzed, Roth double checking that Jacob remembered his keys and asking already when Jacob was free next. Jacob noticed that for every moment he wanted to be with Roth, it was like Roth wanted to be with him ten times more.

Jacob Frye noticed that Maxwell Roth was in love.


End file.
